With a background in stage management and event design, we are fluent in a range of virtual facilitation techniques. We’ve hosted small executive retreats, 300-person interactive events, and meetings with people experiencing hearing impairment.
We approach every meeting with a lens on inclusion: how can we make it accessible to all participants? How might we think of the meeting beyond the walls of Zoom and utilize the time before / between / afterward to continue dialogue that isn’t just focused on a screen?
Whether it’s providing seamless tech support and facilitation in virtual environments, graphic recording in a variety of formats, virtual “brainstorming boards” such as MURAL or Miro, augmented & virtual reality, or “conferences-in-a-box” delivered to people’s homes ahead of time… there are a myriad of ways of enhancing virtual meetings.
We also believe in building capacity within our clients’ teams by helping grow our clients’ digital literacy so they can bring virtual meeting techniques to their teams, and feel more confident with technology.
TECH HOSTING & FACILITATION
A seamless virtual meeting is built on a foundation of organized tech support. Our background in stage management is an asset for these live events so presenters can focus on their content and not worry about slides, breakout groups are deployed smoothly, and any hiccups are managed quickly and calmly. Learn more about essential skills for Zoom tech hosts.
One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to tech support and facilitation: we are flexible to provide everything from light tech support, to more fulsome agenda design and facilitation. We also believe in building capacity within your team, and can design an approach that leverages your team members as technical and facilitation supports.
Pictured: an excerpt of a run of show detailing tech roles, cues, and content for the chat.
INTERACTIVE BOARDS
Interactive “brainstorming” boards (such as MURAL or Miro) allow groups to map out ideas using virtual sticky notes. Check out this example of a MURAL board.
Our boards are custom designed and highly visual to help people re-frame how they think about a challenge or solution. These boards can be made accessible 24/7 so if participants have a brilliant idea at midnight, they can add it to the board.
Pictured: a MURAL board designed as an ocean metaphor.
“Conferences in a box”
Who said a virtual meeting only has to be experienced through screens?
A conference in a box (or conference-in-an-envelope) is a fantastic way of bringing the energy of a meeting to participants’ homes. These special deliveries might contain facilitation templates & worksheets, hands-on activities for interactive parts of the agenda, and tasty snacks and drinks. Check out our full list of ideas here.
And these don’t have to be big boxes! An envelope with key items can be just as effective.
We’ve designed and shipped boxes for a 60-person executive retreat for a large US retailer, through to smaller more intimate staff gatherings.
Check out this article that profiles conference boxes we designed for Sephora.
