Here at Rees McCann, we’re specialists in designing and facilitating online (and hybrid) events that enable everyone to participate.
That means that we mix things up so that people have choices about how they can contribute to the conversation. In the words of the Manifesto for Online Collaboration, we prefer blended forms of engagement (sync, async, video, writing, etc.) over single-mode.
Let me explain a little more about how we do that.
Our events typically “start before they start”. Invitations, for example, are absolutely critical because they set the tone of the event. For example, people asked to “submit abstracts to present at a conference” will have very different expectations from people asked to “think of a question you’d love to ask your colleagues in our community of practice”.
Invitations must let people know that they should plan to be heard or seen, if relevant. It’s not reasonable to surprise participants with a request to turn on all cameras.
Where possible, there’ll be asynchronous online conversations before any live event. A private “social media” area can be set up where people can introduce themselves, share photos, documents etc, and raise questions. While not everyone will post in such a space, its existence still helps “lurkers” to become more comfortable with the people, the topic, and ideally the tools of the live event.
Once we move to on-the-day, the “social media” space stays live, often bursting more vigorously into life.
The live event will be structured using the Web Events That Connect model.
Having warned them in advance, we will ask people to turn on their cameras. Having your own camera on helps you to stay engaged, and so more likely to actively participate – which in turn will make the event more valuable to you.
There’ll be lots of small-group discussions – ideally groups of 3 -5 people – because most people feel comfortable speaking out loud in those. But we always make joining breakouts optional: paradoxically, that makes people more likely to join in.
In big-group discussions, we’ll structure things to include both spoken and written contributions (though we try not to have a chat stream running in parallel to a whole-group discussion – it’s hard for many people to follow both). Music, movement and drawing will often appear, too.
After the live event, things don’t go silent. The asynchronous “social media” space stays live. Facilitators continue to invite contributions; content leaders share extra details from their sessions; participants comment on what worked well for them.
The idea is that by giving people a range of ways to contribute, they’re more likely to find one that works for them. And in our experience, that works!
– How else could we increase participation? Please comment below.