Is the Future Hybrid? Watch this before your next hybrid meeting

are you currently doing or considering running hybrid meetings i know that when the world changed many of us were pushed onto virtual only that was a huge adaptation for most of us and now that more people are returning to traditional workplaces and offices we're starting to think about what is the future of meetings so today we're going to ask the question is hybrid the future of our meetings are we going to try to bring some of the things that we learned about the virtual world and put those together with a traditional in-person meeting well there's a lot to consider and i am so fortunate because today we have a special guest but if you are brand new you've never met me before i just want to introduce myself my name is kat and i help people to create more professional and engaging online presentations now our guest is a fellow facilitator and really cares about the experience of people showing up together joining for a meeting so i am thrilled that we have our guest john keck now jan and i were on a panel together and this topic came up so people wanted to know about hybrid meetings they wanted the opinion and how do you do it well what's the technology and they were kind of jumping to the technology without necessarily considering all of the things that have to come together and both jan and i definitely had some opinions very strong opinions about hybrid so we thought it would be wonderful to get together and have a conversation about hybrid meetings so if you would like to introduce yourself let the group know a little bit about you sure i'm really really excited to chat about hybrid because yes same as you a lot of the people in my community have been asking me about this especially since beginning of covet i decided to really jump in both feet first into the digital world before covet most of my experiences workshops that i created were focused on how can we have more meaningful conversations how can we get beyond small talk and one of the first things we usually do is use this which is a cell phone sleeping bag but actually it's just a padded envelope that we put our cell phones in so we can remove the technology from connecting with each other because i feel like that constant buzzing in your pocket is a is a big distraction but then with covet that wasn't really possible anymore so we had to figure out how to use this and our computers in a more meaningful way so that's what my work has been for the last year and a half is figuring out how can we have more meaningful interactions meaningful gatherings using technology and so because you focus on this and you focus on the experience and meaningful interactions did you notice that suddenly people started to come to you and ask questions about hybrid meetings and how to do that well definitely i actually think that once i started to understand what hybrid meeting actually is uh i often say that everybody was part of an accidental hybrid meeting like you probably were part of one but you didn't even notice oh that's a great idea a great point i really like that yeah and i think kat you have a story of just like if one person calls in from a phone into a meeting like you're having a hybrid meeting same thing the other way around and i've had this happen to me many times again going virtual two people sitting in the same room or in front of one device again you're having a hybrid meeting so there's lots of different types of hybrid that i think everybody's been part of one at least yeah but you might not even have noticed it i think that's a really great point that they have been around for a very long time when someone was traveling or another person on the team had to be elsewhere they would find ways to bring them in i know i used to be on a university board of governors and we often had members calling in we had to make sure that we had the phone set up and the teleconferencing information and then later it developed with a little bit more technology and so they were coming in on screens so we've been working on it for a while but it's been a little rough now before we get into our discussion i would love us to clarify what do we mean when we say hybrid meeting and i think jan you have some visuals that i would love for you to share with the audience yes so like i said there is a big spectrum and i actually created this little drawing just this morning where maybe we can see what does the spectrum look like because i think what most people think about when they think of hybrid is oh wrong wrong button uh the thing right in the middle right like half of the people are online and half of the people are there in person together in the same room that's i think what most people think about but it's also hybrid meeting if everybody's online but then there's two people sitting in the same room that would be all the way on the left side of the spectrum and if we go all the way on the right it would mean you have a in-person meeting where everybody's there except that one person who's calling in or joining from a computer so i think for today what mostly we're going to be talking about is the idea of you have people in person on site and you have people online and they are having a meeting at the same time yeah absolutely so we definitely in gotta come back on the screen so we are talking about that combination and what are some of the things that you have to think about especially if you are designing this and i think i think jan will agree with me on this but it is a lot more work than most people would expect and if you thought virtual meetings were taking a lot of mental effort to run then i mean this is just taking it up a notch it's like turning it to 11. would you would you agree with that definitely like i i like to think of that you're instead of creating one meeting you're creating three like you're creating a virtual one you're creating one in person and you're trying to get this overlap happening where people in person and people are virtual actually connect with each other and have like a shared experience yeah and you have you i think you have a diagram right let's let's take a look at this i like this way of thinking about it because it's visual and it kind of brings in these two different types of meetings together right so we have the online experience that we're creating and a lot of us cat you and me have been doing this for a long time since the beginning of covet and the onsite the in person which has happened before but now if you're doing hybrid you also have to consider that that part in the middle and academy you were chatting earlier yes it looks like a small part where that overlap is but that's really where designing experience comes in like for some experiences that overlap will be quite small but i think if you can make it bigger so more of your participants more of the people who attend can have this shared experience the better but it's also the most challenging part to to create yeah so it might be a small part of the pie but it is maybe you can consider it really concentrated that like that is where you need to focus a lot of your attention you don't want to completely drop the online and the on-site experience you want to make sure those happen but if you're not thinking about how those two play together then you could be in deep trouble and something that i i really really strongly believe is that if you are going to be running a hybrid meeting and or helping to plan one you have to have experienced being on both sides of that and this comes from personal experience i have mentioned this before a couple of times when i was asked about hybrid meetings but i used to work on a university campus where there were multiple locations and so on several occasions we would have meetings and we had video conferencing set up across the different campuses when i was in the larger campus and there were more of us in the room and maybe only a couple of people in the other campus it really turned into most of the people the larger room was having most of the conversation and occasionally remembering that there were other people on a screen inviting them to come in and when i was on the smaller campus and i would take part as the minority really there's just a few of us and we would be basically watching a larger meeting take place and really feeling like we're on the outside similarly if you've ever called into a meeting like we mentioned before you might notice some things that you never would have thought of if you're in the room and a really great example from my past board experience is that when you call into a meeting if your might if the microphone picking up all the voices is sitting near somebody's work area if they are flipping pages that they printed or moving their drink around typing a keyboard that that microphone is picking that up a lot more than it's picking up the voices so it can be a really frustrating experience to be on that other side so that's just that to me is a really important part of if you are going to plan if you're going to be part of this to really understand what the experience is like yeah i i totally agree it's the the accidental hybrids where there's not a lot of planning that goes in into it because and again this has happened to me where a client hired me to do a it was actually exactly a year ago a company holiday virtual holiday event and i did not know this that they ended up having a few people basically share a computer and you had to adjust on the fly and the experience was not as great because as soon as one person and person unmutes themselves and all the speakers start going off you get this crazy feedback and i think that audio issue with hybrid when there's people at the same room is maybe one of the biggest ones to to solve like if you are not prepared i have thought about this like where does the microphone go so the people who are not in person can hear everyone but also which speaker is actually going to bring the audio back in so you can hear the people who are speaking who are not there that's i really i really like that and i would love to know i see it there's a couple people who are here live with us today i see benjamin has experience with this is there anything that you have learned i'd love to hear from you in the chat or the comments of how you have what are some of the things you've discovered or uncovered as you start to run these meetings and i think that's a really great example even if you think about if you've ever seen a couple or people who live in the same house either be on a live stream or maybe in an audio only environment like clubhouse or twitter spaces they have to be in completely separate rooms in order to have that conversation so in certain aspects and from the technology standpoint it's actually a disadvantage to be in the same room when people are participating on the computer and i think you had mentioned that you had some thoughts around that tech side and so i'd love to hear your thoughts on what are the tech considerations for how you can manage these things like feedback on microphones for picking up you know that echo cancellation and and all those fun things to think about right uh i like in my work i talk a lot about how can we make sure that people feel seen and heard and i mean that sometimes in the metaphorical level like sharing something and being acknowledged for what you shared but in this case it's the the the literal definition of being seen and heard like if you are in person you need to make sure that you can see the people who are virtual so having maybe a big monitor in your meeting room so you can see everyone or everyone with their own laptop or device so they can see who's online and how can you hear them so does everybody have earbuds is there one big speaker that is loud enough so you can hear it wherever you are in the room and then going the other direction like for the people who are virtual how can they see all the people are in the room like if the camera is at the front uh let's say in a boardroom and the cameras in the front they will not see the people who are sitting in the back uh same thing like are they able to hear if the microphone is at the front of the room they will only be able to hear the person who's close to the microphone so i often like to think of either one of the easiest ways is almost to create a stage like if you are in person you want to speak you have to walk to the front of the room and that's where the camera and the microphone is set up so people can hear you in person and online so that that's like one one solution but there's lots of different ones depending on also the the setup and what you want to do so yeah i think one of the the big things around this is if you are working with an organization or you are going to be intending to have hybrid meetings as part of a regular aspect of your business there is going to be the investment required to do it well and to do it right and that will mean taking into consideration microphones echo cancellation feedback i know i see one of the comments in here is one of the trickiest things is muting everyone to try and keep the noise out but you also want to have engagement i think that's a really great point what and this this obviously happens in virtual only but for hybrid as well i think and actually this is maybe where it's a really good chance to pause and reflect on the reason people are enthusiastic about getting back to some form of in person is that they miss the benefits that you have from an in-person meeting that are stripped away in those virtual environments and one of them is this instantaneous feedback we see from someone's face we hear cues a little bit faster there isn't this delay when we're on the computer even right now our conversation would be a lot more fluid if we were just recording the two of us having a conversation in person versus that slight delay checking okay are they done speaking is it my turn to speak whereas in person it can be a little bit more natural and that's i think the excitement of getting back to in person but as soon as you add in the virtual you've now like there's going to be a delay you cannot avoid that if there's any virtual aspect to that meeting would you agree with that yeah i actually think that and this is my my biggest issue with hybrid and i'll probably share pretty soon that i'm not a huge fan of doing hybrid meetings at all because uh what i always like to think of i said this at the beginning i like to invite participants to turn off their phones because it's a distraction like if you've ever been let's say at a coffee shop or you're meeting with a friend and you're telling this really maybe even vulnerable story with them or you're sharing a challenge that you're having and they get the text their phone buzzes and they pick it up and while you're talking they're texting and they're not really listening like it makes you feel invisible unimportant ignored and if we're asking people to meet in person and have a device or also pay attention to what's happening online means that they're not ever going to really be present with each other in person either so you're constantly distracted in a way and um i really like to think of and this is maybe the first question everybody needs to ask themselves like what's the purpose for this meeting why are we gathering and then decide does this make sense to do it all virtual and i would actually say that oftentimes having everyone virtual will be way easier than doing some form of hybrid if it's not necessary for the people to be in person in the same room together i think that's a really i mean i think all of us would probably agree we would love for people to be more intentional when planning meetings of saying do we really need to have this as a meeting and and then i think now we are faced with that just because some people happen to be in the same geographical location does not necessarily mean that the best version would be hybrid and that maybe everyone just stays at their desk and joins a virtual meeting if part of the participants are joining virtually versus the amount of work to run it well and and so i would say the other thing that i would really like to emphasize and i'd like to come to some of these there's some great comments in the chat so one of the things that i think is really important is the amount of effort and as you said there's intention but if you are going to run a hybrid meeting i feel like there should be at least one person who is sort of a sign in that moderation role who is not the lead of the meeting so whoever is leading the meeting doing the most speaking or even moderating verbally there should be a second person or maybe a third who are helping out with making sure that everyone is being seen as you said being seen being heard because i think it's very easy for your virtual participants and maybe in some cases if there's only a couple people in a room together they might have a similar experience they might feel invisible and when that happens people disengage they'll pick up their phone they'll check their email they'll just say like why am i even here i'm invisible and we want people to feel seen we want them to feel heard and that they are part of that and that takes a lot of intention and a lot of work and i think there should be a dedicated person who is responsible for making sure that there's a balance and a flow of conversation between the participants yeah like i don't think any one person can effectively run what is like two to three meetings simultaneously right like if you have a person who is your co-facilitator your co-host your co-moderator who can be in person if you're virtual or can be virtual if you're in person you just make sure that if there's a message in the chat from the virtual participants it doesn't get ignored because i think that's the that's the the accidental hybrid meetings that i've been part of was it was designed for in person and people are like they're using post-its and writing things on on on papers and put them on the flip chart nobody can see what's on the flip chart and then if people ask in the chat hey i can't see that and there's not a person to check the chat they will not be able to even participate or see what's here what's going on in the meeting yeah so yeah if you have this extra person that can be like the in-person and virtual co-host they need to have this extra line of communication yeah so they can reach each other and make them aware that one part of the the attendees is not not fully participating well and and i think there's human error and the fact that you know when i would be in these multi-location meetings where we would have the camera at the front of the room the screen at the front of the room and then so if you were ever presenting you kind of had to figure out okay do i sit sort of towards the front and facing here and turn and look at the people as a human you want you're you're just primed to look at other faces and if you're in a room with faces you are going to prioritize those faces over a camera lens which is you looking at the people on the other side because that's the other part which i think we both experience this we're fans of looking into the camera to show that you're making eye contact and that you are speaking to that person but in those setups mostly you're looking at a screen so you're never really making eye contact as well so that problem still exists and it's and i think having that person who's responsible for paying attention to the the success of that meeting might be able to tell a speaker hey make sure that your your back is actually to the camera right now or hey make sure that you are treating the camera like a room full of people as well and uh yeah it's it's tricky yeah um maybe i can share one example of a hybrid experience that i helped put together that that i think worked perfectly um and this might not be your typical meeting it actually was a hybrid wedding but there's lots of lessons i think we can learn from how we thought about designing that and how can we that be applied to let's say the workplace um but from the beginning we knew that what's happening in person people who are joining virtually they they will always miss out like they in person they have the reception there's a dinner people can't have the food uh they're not gonna ship food and people eating in front of their screens it's not the same as sitting in the room with with people so we decided that we'll create a separate online experience for everyone who couldn't be there in person and actually was great because the guests came from hungary and brazil and canada so a lot more people were able to attend the whole wedding by being able to join virtually but my job for the virtual experience was we're going to do breakout rooms we're going to run activities so they can connect with each other we created a collaborative art piece where everybody drew something that they wished the couple for the future but even for that people in person could just scan a qr code and also participate and then for the actual day we actually had a reporter on the scene so we kind of treated it like a tv tv show where um one person created programming for the virtual audience where he interviewed interviewed the wedding party so i was running an activity then he would find someone interview them i would run an activity while he finds the next person and we created this almost tv show like broadcast for the virtual experience until the ceremony started and that's where everybody had the same experience of watching the couple and then after that the couple had a couple of minutes to do a game for the where they interacted with the virtual participants so they also could get some some quality time with them and then after that the virtual experience ended and they continued with the in-person one and i think that idea of we created something for virtual there was something that is kind of already happening in person and we created that little overlap in the middle yeah i so the thing i love about that story is that there is such attention to both groups so not neglecting either and i and and how do you bring those across so the example of having something that is actually primarily more virtual but you're inviting the in-person guests to participate and take part with their mobile device but then also making sure that the people who are home feel like they're there and having that interview style the reporter i think those are really nice touches that make the person watching the virtual wedding feel like they matter and that the the bride and groom care that they are part of this and they actually feel like part of it not just kind of a voyeur sitting and just watching the stream so i really like that example and i think you can translate that to a lot of other circumstances where even if it's not a wedding maybe it's not quite as exciting but for other hybrid events where you have some in-person and some virtual how are you making both of those parties feel like they are an active participant and how do you bridge both get both of those technology i guess not technologies but yeah how are you having the in-person people participate with some of the virtual only and i think someone had mentioned here i have to go back there's some great great conversation going on in the chat around um yeah you need to level the playing field so carolyn says it's a lot about how you value remote participants if you design an in-room process like flip charting or sticky notes that virtual folks can't participate you need to level the playing field i think that's a really great way to think of it how do we make sure that every single person can participate and if they cannot all participate we're not doing it like that's just don't do it if you're going to exclude people that's that should not be part of that experience so i think yeah having everyone use a virtual tool or something like that yeah especially when maybe the reason why somebody is not there in person is not something that they can control right like excluding people for not um i don't know being able to fly in for a meeting because they're on the other side of the world is not not that great in terms of inclusivity and creating an experience that you want to be meaningful for everyone yeah i completely agree and now is there anything uh yan that you're seeing in the chat that you wanted to come back to i just want to take a quick look because there's so many uh things here you know reid is saying it's so important to respect the time of virtual attendees i was on a recent hybrid meeting where the start time was noted at nine logged in and they said 9 30 people could chat and grab food that's a great example of how the person running that was not considerate of the folks who were joining virtually now if you had said in advance we're going to have sort of a you know coffee and chat maybe have a breakout room for the virtual participants to bring a coffee and chat if they want to because that is another aspect that did get lost when we started to all meet virtually there used to be i can't remember that there's a there's a technical term for it but those casual interactions as you're gathering in a room or at the end of a meeting as you're walking out you can have those side conversations hey how was your weekend or hey what did you think of that oh yeah what are those those get lost when we don't have the ability to have those chats so i think if we take that example sure you could have the people in person chat and grab food but you need to make sure that the people online have that same opportunity or that it's very clear that the actual meeting is not starting until 9 30 that's when you need to be online prior to that we have the option of a chat like if you want to join show up a few minutes early talk to some of the other people who are going to be joined in a meeting that to me is like thinking a little bit more about the people attending virtually yeah like that's that's the one thing i've been saying for like the last year in a little bit online these authentic human connections i like to call them magical human moments uh don't happen by accident you actually have to design for them because like you said there is no lineup while you're entering a venue where you can chat with the people next to you or uh actually lineups in general to me are the things that we lost and there's so much magic that happens i don't know waiting to use the restroom waiting to get a coffee waiting to get food the idea of sharing food and sitting around the table um so online i always say like we have to design for that like what are the activities that we can create so um these magical human moments happen more often and one easy one is actually uh sometimes i recreate this kind of waiting in line by as soon as people come in i put them in a breakout room with three four people uh yeah with ideally some conversation starters just to speed up the whole connection process and not leaving them talking about the weather and sports and other things that um are not that interesting and every time like the next four or five people come in i put them in a new breakout room so this way they can have their experience um before the actual event starts yeah i love i love the idea of you know facilitating those and and i you know as you were describing waiting in line which of course all of us think oh i'm so glad i'm not waiting in line but they're not necessarily thinking about the unintended benefits of that but i just i had a flashback to an event that i attended by myself it was a local in-person event a few years ago for entrepreneurs i knew no one they had you know little fruit and croissants and coffee so you could kind of pick it up and i just sat down and i just didn't have the people running the meeting weren't necessarily thinking of ways to initiate or you know here's your paper find out the name of the person beside you you know something really simple that can help people engage there were ways that people could be doing that in person that got missed because i know i would i think i don't want to show up too early if i don't know anyone there but if the person running that meeting is thinking about ways for them to connect that's really helpful and in that virtual environment i like that example you gave of putting a few people together in a room but having something that starts a conversation and i think the more we can get better at i like to call them i think someone used this once on a podcast and i really liked it the idea of i can't help it conversation starter so you know a simple exam it could be it could be timely like you know christmas music before or after december first or something like that you know people have opinions on different things and they're sort of funny and silly and usually someone can kind of chime in or i mean maybe that's not the best example but it's better than just throwing people in the room and expecting them to start talking to each other that can just be deer in a headlights situation it's my worst nightmare like unfacilitated unfacilitated networking events or cocktail parties like i avoid at all costs now because that's where you usually just have the same conversation 20 times so what do you do you walk away with a stack of business cards but you haven't really met anyone that's at least been my experience so i'm a huge fan of in-person and virtual facilitated activities and i like to think of it as the unofficial start activity like before everyone has arrived and this happens at meetings at social events there is a a spectrum a few minutes of when people join the zoom link like if you have and maybe this is like another issue about meetings in general in in a virtual space now everything's back to back like your one meeting ends at the top of the hour the next first meeting starts exactly at the same time because they think oh you just have to click this link and you can join but when do people go to use the washroom when do they refill their water there's no time for that so often and then you go over like five minutes so there's always this time in the beginning where it can be the most awkward thing like i i often uh like to say the worst thing a facilitator host could say let's just wait until everybody has arrived because you're basically penalizing the people who showed up on time you're setting expectations that you never start on time and the worst thing you're allowing everyone to disengage check their phone do something else turn off their camera rather than asking to engage right away and it'll be really hard to get them re-engaged after so thinking of a simple question that you can ask in the chat or in person i often would do name tags and the name tag itself had a question or a topic on it that people could fill out so right away you have this conversation started to get into something meaningful i love that i so i have my question for you is let's say someone comes to you and they say okay i have to run a hybrid meeting this is this does have to be a meeting we're going to have a group of people on site we're going to have a group of people joining what is the first the move the first three things you say to them to run a successful hybrid event the first thing i would want to find out is like how many people are online how many people are going to show up in person because i would always start by designing the experience for the minority like if there's two people in person and everybody else is virtual i would probably start with okay how can i make sure that those two in-person participants are engaged and can fully participate yes and then figure out what do we do in a virtual way uh to make sure that they can do it too and if it's the other way around then i would start with the virtual experience first um so asking like what's the split like what type of hybrid are we actually talking about on the spectrum um i really i really like that plan for the minority so whatever's the smaller group make sure that you're paying attention to that because that's likely to get lost in the planning yeah and with that in mind also like if you are part of the majority then even more so like having um like depending on who it is that i'm talking to is there a budget to hire a co-facilitator co-host because that would be really important or is there somebody in the team that would take up that role like one of the other ideas that i've heard i haven't tried myself was the idea of having a buddy system like every if you have almost like equal split having each in-person participant have a buddy that is virtual that they can chat with and have like a separate chat channel to make sure that everybody can stay engaged and can communicate with the other the other group [Music] and then i guess the third one would be around the technology yeah like what does the especially what does the in-person room setup look like and making sure that that is tested before the meeting before you're asking people to to use it yes that's a really great reminder is run a test meeting get a few people together go through and actually see if the tech works have more than one person check your mics check your speakers and and then i think i would also add depending on the type of meeting if it makes more sense in the design of the meeting to have each in-person participant have a screen in front of them whether that's a tablet computer etc make sure that that's you're investing in that don't don't just expect everyone to have the right technology so if you're setting up a meeting and you're investing and doing this properly make sure that the room is arranged so no matter who shows up they can be part of this meeting and that you're not depending on their tech in order to do this and there are some great like conference style style microphones now that pick up a lot from like if people sitting around the table having that in the middle it will pick up from all directions um so there is some great technology out there that probably makes sense to invest in if you're doing this on a regular basis yeah i've seen some i know there's one called the owl and it it has the camera that moves around and it will identify who's speaking and make sure that so there i think the good news is that many companies recognize that this is happening whether we like it or not and they are trying to use some of the intelligence that we have and these features that we're able to do now that we maybe weren't able to do even a few years ago and bring that into the experience so i think exploring those but uh talking to people who've done this and that's one of the reasons that i've sort of hesitated when people said hey what's your advice on hybrid meetings and aside from the fact that yes i have some experience as a participant and things that i am aware of because of those experiences you really do want to talk to someone who has run some events who has like has hands-on experience so they know what are the common pitfalls what are the things that they're going to come up against and at first you might feel inclined to cut corners and try and save money but i think i think this is the type of thing that requires does require some investment to do it well and to be meaningful yeah like i'm curious if i can ask a question back what have you noticed or what are you worried about might be the biggest mistakes that people make if they don't plan ahead like if they're doing their first hybrid meeting what is something that they probably will forget to think about i think that it's just they they go on autopilot and just completely they're just not thinking about the experience of everyone who is there and at least that's my experience from those past meetings where it's basically human error they just started paying attention to the people or if they were online just kind of focusing on that and forgetting about that minority that you mentioned and not using another person and i think as we have this conversation really it'd be ideal to have sort of a moderator co-host on the virtual platform and one in the room so that they're both and those two can kind of be partners who are making sure that this is running smoothly and that we're addressing any of the concerns or needs of the respective participants i mean on a really small scale that might not be as necessary but uh yeah i really feel like i think earlier on today i said that i recommend anyone planning a meeting be on both sides i actually think every single person as a participant should have to be on both sides because that will make you a more considerate participant as well if you have experienced being in the minority group being in the majority group being online versus being in person once you've experienced that you can have a lot more empathy for the person who has the more uh more demanding experience i would say i don't know if that's the right term but that's the term that is coming to mind as i think of this right now yeah it's definitely about building a bit of empathy right like if you uh if you are a participant and i think i always like to give a lot of responsibility to my participants if you can teach the group to facilitate that by themselves especially if you're just one person um you're gonna have way more engaged uh meeting by the end of it excellent so i'm gonna i'm gonna wrap things up but i do wanna offer one more opportunity um yan what's like what will be your words of wisdom as we sort of wrap up this initial discussion on hybrid meetings and what people should be thinking about what what's something you want to leave our audience with i think the biggest biggest question is start with the purpose of why you're bringing people together and once you figure that out decide does this have to be virtual or in person and only then if it's can't be one or the other then start thinking about a hybrid meeting um if you're having a dinner party i don't think anybody has ex has enjoyed a dinner party as much being sitting in front of your computer and eating and watching other people eat and hear the sounds through the microphone much louder than you would in person so this is something that has to be to in my opinion in person and if you're just sharing a slideshow and you're doing a presentation why do we ask people to drive to the office and sit in the room so i think a lot of it starts with what's the purpose of the meeting and then you can figure out how to make make that work yeah i really i like that you brought up that the dinner party example while it might seem silly because of our situation over the last 20 months there we have been really creative with trying to have people participate and engage in experiences using virtual setting of a phone etc but there are certain occasions where just because you can bring someone in through a computer does not mean that you should and there are just certain experiences that should probably be reserved for in person only and then there are experiences that right now might be more enjoyable in that virtual only format so being realistic and not just because you can doesn't mean that you should awesome thank you so much for joining us and did you want to share i know i have would you like to show your website i may have pulled it up do you want to sure tell a little bit about where can people find you what do you do and a little bit more about how they can follow you find you etc yeah so my website is yank.com which cat has graciously pulled up let's have a conversations that matter that a conversation that matters that's really what i'm all about my intention often when creating an experience when training other people how to create experiences is how can we make sure that people feel less alone by the end of it and two of the main things that i can offer if you are on my website are the connection cards which is a physical deck of cards so it's not digital like you can get a pdf as well but i highly recommend the physical one um that sparks some more interesting conversations and then i do a five-week virtual facilitator training where i actually talk about how can we do some of those things those magical human moments how we can recreate them in a virtual space let's say on zoom or other digital meeting platforms i love that and i i really think check out uh like just go and look have a look at john's page i just think this idea it doesn't come naturally to everyone even even me these things don't come naturally so when people are really strong and excel at creating these incredible experiences thinking about what people are actually going through when they join you and participate in something that really does elevate an experience but it does take some attention and some foresight and so working with someone like yon who can help you with that is definitely the way to go so thank you so much we're gonna wrap up and uh i just appreciate you being here and for anyone trying hybrid meetings let us know how they go come back share in the comments we'd love to hear from you all right thanks so much

Channel: Cat Mulvihill

Views: 1,317

Keywords: hybrid meetings, hybrid zoom, hybrid teams meeting, hybrid zoom meeting, jan keck, meeting facilitation, planning hybrid meetings, running hybrid meetings

Id: 63lNbMwVH1c

Length: 42min 42sec (2562 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 01 2021