Virtual Workshops: Stand Out from the Crowd

Are you tired of the same traditional-old-in-person workshops?

Virtual workshops can be a great way to unlock your team's and business's full potential. Here are some benefits of remote/digital workshops that will make you want to switch things up:

• Time-savers & cost-effective: For the ones who really want to get things done. It’s less time-consuming and more straight forward to in terms of get things done to keep to a schedule for the activities, alignment … (you name it) and, can save you time & energy by automating documentation and transcription. Also, this type of workshops can save you money on travel and venue hire, making them a more cost-effective option.
• Make it BIG, make it GLOBAL: Whatever you are thinking global or locally, the insights can come overseas. Remote workshops allow you to convene with people from all over the world, bringing together the best thinkers, experts, and mindsets.
• Democratization: Virtual workshops provide a level playing field for all participants, ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute. Even the ones who might being distracted with the thousands of emails, they will feel that they need to contribute and be an active to speaker.
• More flexible & adaptable: Remote workshops can be scheduled in shorter, more concentrated bursts, making it easier to fit them into busy schedules. Plus, we can divide it into different modules, for different days, what makes the topic a daily basis discussion.
• Go Digital: Highly interactive when done properly and when the participants are actively encouraged to engage and collaborate in the process. For that make sure you plan your session, tools, breaks and flow.

Now... Ready for my 10 tips to prepare a virtual session? Here they are:

1. Your Tribe: Who plays the Lead Facilitator? How plays the Workshop Producer? Who will take notes and produce a sum-up / consolidate all in one pager? Who will create the materials to use before the session? Who will care about logistics?
2. Purpose, ambition, end goal: Make sure everyone is aligned with the objective of the session and knows what the output is expected.
3. Right Talent: Make sure that everyone from your audience/ participants have a crucial role to the session. This is not a webinar, a training course and they will not be expected to assist, they need to be an active participant.
4. Technology: Make sure the audience are aware about the usage of your technology – you can do it by Teams, Zoom, Google Meets…, and others.
5. Digital Platforms: Use interactive and digital platforms such as Miro or Mural to design or session in a more interactive way. Make sure you design your session before and the flow is accurate with your goals and expected outputs.
6. AI-tools: Artificial Intelligence is currently everywhere, right? Boost your session with some tools if you need if! From brainstorming process, for HMW (how might we statements), accelerate the process of getting personas, Customer Journeys, Data Analysis, and so and so… Its massive! (I will do a post just on this topic in a few days! ??)
7. Dry-Runs with the Audience: Make sure your audience know how to use technology and digital platforms. Do both: a “Content Dry Run and a Technology/ Platform usage Sessions” so your participants can be 200% prepared and the sessions in the end will be much better too (trust me, been there done that!)
8. Don’t kill your audience: Make sure you have sessions no longer than 3 hours and of course with breaks. If you need more time (I bet you need!) make it in different modules, different days, different end-goals.
9. "Power napping": AKA make breaks longer; this one relates to the previous one. My best tip is making a break of 20 min every 90 – 120 min, when designing your agenda. But take into consideration the energy level on your audience on the day and be flexible to change it accordingly.
10. Dry-Run with your Tribe: Make sure you have a proper rehearsal on a day before and do the step by step with your team, so your “tribe” are ready for the final day. Consider to setup a 15-min call on the day of the event to re-test everything again and to make sure all of you are ready to make the session a Massive one!

So why not try a remote/digital workshop for your next event? With all these benefits, you won't regret it!

Do you have any more tips to share, to prepare a virtual workshop session? Let me know.

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