Tips for Zoom’s New Features

How-to video for the most recent updates

This article was originally published at voltagecontrol.com

Attention Facilitators! I’ve super excited to share with you a few features that I’ve been waiting for since April! When the pandemic canceled every in-person workshop on the planet, I quickly realized that there were some deficiencies in the existing tools that made our lives as facilitators more difficult. After some conversations with the Zoom product team, I was pleased to hear that we had some better options coming. Little did I know it would take 6 months! So, what is all this that I’m excited about? I’m going to show you.

In this video, I cover multi — spotlight, custom layout for gallery view, and the ability to allow participants to choose their own rooms.

Watch the how-to video and check out the screenshots below for more details:

Highlights

Hosts can now spotlight videos of any participant at the same time!

Once you’ve spotlighted someone, they will be the person visible in the speaker view regardless of who is talking. They’ll also be in the top left of the gallery view.

You can add multiple people to spotlight, or replace the spotlight with one person for a quick change.

Once you’ve spotlighted someone, they will be the person visible in the speaker view regardless of who is talking. They’ll also be in the top left of the gallery view.

You can add multiple people to spotlight, or replace the spotlight with one person for a quick change.

If you want your participants to follow your custom view, make sure to check “Follow “hosts’ Video Order”.

**Note** If someone raises their hand, they will post to the front of the gallery view. This is really handy. It’s much easier to see than the small blue hand in the participant window.

And now for the one we’ve all been waiting for! Participants can choose their own rooms. You can now do Open Space, Sift and Share, World Cafe — virtual networking will never be the same!

If you auto or manually assign, you can still allow participants to choose from the options. You must select this before opening the rooms!

Name the breakout rooms so that participants know their destinations.

If you assign people to rooms, they will start in those rooms and then can move to other rooms as they wish. You can also leave them unassigned and let them pick their own rooms.

If participants are unassigned, they’ll get a prompt to join a room. You may need to give them assistance.

Participants can see the room names and who is already in the room to help them decide which room to join.

Want to learn more about virtual facilitation?

Voltage Control offers virtual services including Virtual Facilitation, Virtual Transitions, and Virtual Meeting Design. Please reach out at [email protected] for a consultation.