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This week I ran an online event for a charity\u2019s board of trustees, supporting them to review how the landscape around them had changed and how they anticipate it will continue to change, in order to refresh their business plan. A typical nearly-post pandemic event, it was via Zoom as the most practical way to get everyone together at minimal time and travel cost. What did I learn?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Okay, well maybe that\u2019s not entirely true. But two is the bare minimum you need. Whereas in real life you\u2019d have some paperwork to check back to, you\u2019d have some resources for interactive exercises around the room, maybe a laptop & projector combo up for a presentation, it\u2019s now an all-in-one. As a delegate you\u2019re unlikely to realise the juggling act going on from the presenter\u2019s side but it\u2019s an absolute minefield. As a minimum you need a screen for your resources, and what you\u2019re queuing up next, and a screen that you\u2019re sharing for the delegates, often with the Zoom\/Teams screen as a bonus hanging around so you can keep an eye on engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I logged on 30 mins early to get all my screens and resources sorted, and generally ready myself. The Chief Exec hopped on to say hi and check in \u2013 and we couldn\u2019t hear each other. 25 minutes of phonecalls, reviewing settings on both sides, logging off, logging back in and testing with other people, we finally got audio between us. Part of it, but I\u2019m not sure all of it, was resolved by me changing a speaker setting on my side. If there\u2019s anything worse than technology letting you down, it\u2019s the frustration of not understanding why. It leaves this lingering sense of mistrust because you never know when the issue will pop up again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve delivered tons of training, facilitation and live events and interactive exercises are key. They get people thinking, moving, engaging. Passive bodies create passive minds \u2013 you can see people checking out from their expressions. But when your only method of engagement is via someone\u2019s screen, your options are much more limited. You\u2019ve lost the ability to get people to move seats, wander the room and eye-ball people properly. It ups the ante on your ability to be engaging session when it\u2019s a static session on-screen \u2013 so share the responsibility and get people into breakout rooms, into discussions, jotting down ideas, drawing, however it works with your session to get physical movement and people\u2019s brains working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The great news is there are loads of platforms out there that can help with interaction \u2013 it\u2019s a case of picking the right ones for you and your audience. I went with Slido integrated with Powerpoint for some activities that could be accessed by your phone via a QR code, where the results pop up on screen, as well as a Jamboard to do digital post-it based exercises on. But Miro, Padlet, Trello, AhaSlides and Mural are all platforms that give great options for interactive exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like all great things, when technology works its amazing. But when it doesn\u2019t, it can be a disaster. While I\u2019d prepped online platforms, I also had printed copies. One thing that worked particularly well was having a printed out agenda with timings and key slides, to keep me on track and was just one less thing to have competing for screen space. There was also a delegate who struggled with technology in accessing an online platform and we had to adjust our approach so they could feed in their points verbally for me to capture. Another great lesson in not being able to guarantee the same level of digital literacy across all delegates and needing an agile approach to facilitation in order to make sure no-one is excluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Online just isn\u2019t comparable to in-person. You\u2019ve got all the range of extra life-intrusions that come with home working \u2013 animals getting involved, kids appearing, doorbells going, and on top of that, you know full well everyone\u2019s got emails\/news etc at the touch of mouse. I think even in the most engaging online events I\u2019ve attended, even I\u2019ve felt the pull to check emails, what\u2019s going on in the world, the school news app when it goes. Instead of fighting against it, or being frustrated by it, I think a big lesson as a facilitator is that you can only deliver your best event, and even with all the best planning and amazing content and interactive exercises, you\u2019re unlikely to be able to hold people\u2019s attention all of the time. What you can do though is encourage that engagement throughout the event and even consider early requests for cameras to remain on, if that\u2019s critical for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delivering a half day online felt much more draining than delivering it in person. Something about the additional pressure of having limited options for engagement and the extra focus needed to continually focus on a screen. I\u2019m sure delegates felt it too. There\u2019s a balance to be struck between enough time for good content and engagement to happen and enough breaks\/warm up\/review to keep people involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I over-planned my event deliberately, packing it with more exercises than it needed to make sure I had flexibility as I learnt more about the group and got a sense of how well they were taking to the event. As expected, there were exercises that were completed a little quicker than expected, and some that were really meaty and deserved a longer slot because of all the valuable discussion it created. It depends hugely on who you have involved, and their particular interests and approaches, and I found it really beneficial to be able to flex as the event went on to get the best from the group as the event progressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I would definitely do it again. It felt like a big investment of time at the design stage but now having this set of resources is a great foundation for future events. I love the facilitator role in helping organisations have big discussions and supporting this organisation to consider how it will refresh its business plan will support its development, if not its survival, over the years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo by Chris Montgomery<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week I ran an online event for a charity\u2019s board of trustees, supporting them to review how the landscape around them had changed and how they anticipate it will continue to change, in order to refresh their business plan. A typical nearly-post pandemic event, it was via Zoom as the most practical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[13,11,20,18,12,21,25],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-facilitation","tag-charity","tag-consultant","tag-event","tag-facilitation","tag-freelance","tag-non-profit","tag-self-employment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t