Virtual Workshop Coordination Tactics

Hybrid meetings don't have to feel like a compromise Here's how to make them actually work. Yesterday I ran a workshop with 8 people in the room and 10 online across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. It worked brilliantly. Not because we got lucky, but because we designed it properly from the start. Here's what made the difference: 1️⃣ Split Your Facilitation/Leading Team Don't: Have all facilitators in one location Do: Position facilitators in-room AND online 💫 Why: Virtual facilitators can run breakout rooms while in-room facilitators teach the full group. Everyone gets proper attention. This also works when it is a meeting - if possible have meeting leaders split between virtual and IRL. 2️⃣ Invest in Proper Tech Don't: Rely on laptop speakers, basic mics and one camera. Do: Use quality microphones and speakers that pick up the whole room, and cameras that have multiple angles. 💫 Why: Bad audio and visuals kills engagement faster than anything else. If virtual participants can't hear or see clearly, they disengage. Our client had incredible facilities yesterday, and it made a huge difference. 3️⃣Design for Dual Engagement Don't: Run the session as in-person with virtual watching Do: Structure activities that work for both formats simultaneously 💫 Why: When virtual participants are relegated to observers, energy drops. Make them active contributors.  4️⃣Check In With Both Groups Regularly Don't: Focus on the room and forget the screen Do: Explicitly invite virtual contributions throughout, using their names and non verbal signals where possible. 💫 Why: It's easy to default to the people you can see. Be deliberate about creating space for online voices. The result? High energy. Full participation. Genuine connection across three cities. Hybrid isn't about choosing between quality and accessibility. It's about designing intentionally so everyone can contribute fully. ♻️ repost to help someone run better hybrid sessions 👉 follow Scarlett McCabe for more communication tips

Do you need to host an online workshop for distributed team members? I got you covered with 5 tips to make the event value-add! Remote workshops come with their own set of challenges (no surprise, right?!). But with more teams hybrid, remote, or even time zones away, you have to adapt. I have participated in remote workshops, and I’ve led them. I’ve tried new things. I’ve seen (and had) a fair share of successes and failures. I’ve listened. I’ve learned. Here are my tips: 1. Establish Expectations Early Reach out to participants with a clear plan and set expectations for their behavior during the session. When the workshop starts, lay down the ground rules and explain how to use the technology. In a remote workshop, distractions are your enemy. Establish a policy of keeping cameras on during the session. ----------------- 2. Use a Flexible Agenda A well-structured agenda is essential, but remember to include some flexibility. Create flexible sessions — discussions, exercises, or breaks that can be expanded or contracted as needed. This approach allows you to adjust the schedule on the fly without participants noticing, ensuring the workshop stays on track no matter what. ------------------ 3. Provide Clear Instructions Even the best explanations can sometimes be missed or misunderstood. To avoid confusion, put short, clear descriptions of exercises and activities in a shared document or collaboration board. This ensures that everyone knows what’s expected of them, even if they need to reference the instructions later. ------------------ 4. Maximize Participant Involvement A facilitator's role is to draw out the best ideas from participants, not to dominate the conversation. Prioritize practical sessions over lengthy lectures to ensure that participants are actively contributing rather than passively listening. Address people by name, in an inviting way, if they aren’t participating (“Hey [name], I don’t think we’ve heard from you on this yet. Do you have an opinion about [xyz]…”). ------------------ 5. Include Regular Breaks Sitting in front of a screen for hours can be exhausting, so make sure to include regular breaks. A 5-10 minute break every 45-60 minutes is usually enough to give participants a chance to recharge. This helps maintain a sense of connection and keeps energy levels up. Online and remote workshops aren't necessarily better or worse than in-person sessions. The big difference between the two is a matter of logistics. And if done well, remote workshops can be an empowering tool rather than a limiting one. They can make the workshop process better. If you want to learn more practical tips on facilitating effective meetings, sign up for The Digital Butterfly membership waitlist today! 😎

Last week, I had the pleasure of facilitating a two-day workshop with the board of a financial institution, centered on future readiness and building a high-performance organization. Even though we were connecting from different continents, the experience was transformative—intimate, deep, and impactful. The virtual setting didn’t limit our connection; it actually invited us to dig even deeper. Here are three essential steps to make online workshops both productive and dynamic: 1. Set the Stage with Purpose and Ritual: Inspired by Priya Parker’s insights (the art of gathering), every online gathering should have a clear purpose and intentional opening. Begin with a grounding exercise—whether it’s a moment of silence, music or a question that brings everyone into the present moment. This allows participants to mentally shift from their daily roles and into the space of the workshop. 2. Craft Space for Connection and Vulnerability: Virtual meetings don’t have to feel impersonal. Building trust is possible by weaving in structured moments for sharing. For example, ask each participant to reflect on a personal story that resonates with the workshop’s theme. The more personal the sharing, the greater the group’s cohesion. 3. Create Pockets of Energizing Interaction: Keep the energy up by varying the formats. Use breakout rooms, live polls, on line boards like mural or Miro and interactive exercises. To sustain engagement over longer sessions, give space for reflection after each activity, allowing participants to absorb and internalize insights before moving to the next topic. By designing with intention, online workshops can be as transformative and intimate as in-person experiences. Here’s to building future-ready, high-performance teams—one connection at a time! https://civiclab.ch

We were wrong. What works in a room doesn’t always work online. When Jeff Gothelf and I started teaching online, we thought we could just adapt our in-person classes to video conferences. Turns out, that doesn’t work. We had to rethink how we structure lessons in order to keep people engaged, and create an interactive experience that actually helped them learn. Here’s what made the biggest difference: 1. Shorter is better (shoutout to Teresa Torres for this one) → People can sit in a room for a full day. They won’t on Zoom. → Schedule multiple shorter sessions instead of one long one. Keep them engaging—not just with the facilitator, but also with the content and each other. 2. Ditch lectures → What works in person often falls flat online. → We moved lectures to short pre-recorded videos as homework and used live sessions for discussion and exercises instead. 3. Use small breakout rooms → Large-group discussions rarely work well online. → Breakout rooms let teams collaborate and bring back key insights. 4. Cameras on, mics off → It sounds simple, but setting expectations upfront keeps energy high. → Everyone keeps cameras on. Mics stay muted unless you're speaking. 5. Choose the right tools → Mural/Miro for whiteboarding, Slack for between-class discussions, and Zoom’s breakout rooms for collaboration. → The right tools make workshops feel more interactive. Online workshops can be just as engaging as in-person ones—you just have to adjust for the medium. What have you seen work well?

Part 2/3: Deepening Engagement in Virtual Workshops As I've navigated through numerous virtual workshops, I've discovered more strategies that deepen engagement and make every session more impactful. Sharing my journey and learning with you, here are additional insights I've found invaluable: 1. Personalize your approach: I've learned the importance of tailoring the content to the audience. This allows me to customize examples and case studies to better resonate with their experiences and challenges. 2. Use engaging visuals and interactive tools: I've incorporated more visual aids and interactive elements like polls, quizzes, and breakout rooms. These tools not only break up the monotony but also encourage participation. It's amazing how a simple poll can invigorate a session and provide instant feedback. 3. Follow-up is key: I make it a habit to send out a summary email after each workshop. This email includes key takeaways, answers to any unanswered questions, and additional resources. It's a small effort on my part, but it goes a long way in reinforcing the learning and showing participants that I value their engagement and growth. 4. Share your journey: I've found that sharing my own learning journey, mistakes included, makes me more relatable and builds a stronger connection with the audience. It demystifies the learning process and encourages participants to embrace their own growth paths with more confidence. I'm curious to know, how do you adapt your sessions to keep participants engaged and ensure they're not just passive listeners? Stay tuned for Part 3, where I'll share some final thoughts and tips on mastering virtual workshops.