Better Virtual Sessions: Facilitation Skills for Zoom & Beyond
Zoom meetings, workshops, and trainings don’t have to be bad. They can be enjoyable, creative, connective places that allow us to communicate and work with people we would have never brought together otherwise. But we need to know how to use the platform to our advantage and how to transmute the technologies that allow for connection, contribution, and creativity from in-person sessions to the online environment. That is what this session is all about.
This session is about how to bring facilitation awareness, tools, and skills to an online environment. How do we get people to engage, participate, turn their cameras on (it’s not as hard OR essential as you think!), and not multi-task or zone out in our sessions? How do create spaces that people want to be in, where people contribute, and the same people don’t dominate the conversation. That is what you’ll learn (and so much more!) in this session
We’ll cover!
The unique online environments make it EASIER for people to participate
How to get introverts and more reserved people to speak up (without pressure)
Ways to uniquely use Zoom screen share, polls, and chat to your advantage
And so much more.
This is not a general advice workshop, this is a tactical practical session where I tell you the techniques that I use to engage 1000s of professional facilitators and receive almost across the board 5-star reviews for my online workshops for the past 5 years. I was someone who thought I would hate online workshops, but once you know how to do them, they can genuinely be really fun. I even had a participant once say (1 day into a 2 full day Zoom workshop).
“I never thought I’d say this… but I’m really excited for another 6 hour Zoom tomorrow!”
WHO’S LEADING THIS TRAINING?
It’s me, Meg Bolger! I’m a expert facilitator, social justice educator, and participatory educator. I have been running the vast majority of my facilitation education business Facilitator Cards online since 2020. A lover of in-person workshops, I was incredibly skeptical that online workshops would ever be able to replace the experience of an in-person session and while they are never exactly the same the power in both to capture and move people is enormous. I would never be able to connect with people around the globe without online workshops and I’m a true believer that they can be good, effective, and powerful spaces.
I am the head of Facilitator Cards and POP Facilitation and have co-founded numerous projects and businesses including The Safe Zone Project, FacilitatingXYZ, Unlocking the Magic of Facilitation, spent much of the last decade training trainers from around the country (and world) on the art of facilitation.
WHAT TYPES OF TECH
This session will be focused on what is possible to do in Zoom. While many of the tips will translate to any online platform, we’re going to be using Zoom as the example. The first 75-minutes will involve no outside technologies or additional softwares.
The last 45 minutes of the session I will share some of my favorite technologies that help me run my online workshops.
OBS / E-cam softwares (so I never have to screen share again!)
Stream Deck (to organize all the notes I’m going to send to participants)
AhaSlides (my live polling software of choice)
We’ll also leave time for additional tech-tips and behind the scenes of “what’s your computer set up like” if you want to get that nerdy 🤓 I’m ready for you!
WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE?
This workshop is a highly participatory session. It is a real “show” over “tell” type session where you’ll get to experience all the technologies of participation first hand. This is not a lecture!
We’ll use a variety so that you can be in the participants seat and experience what all of the methods are all about. This session is limited to 100 participants. We cap at 100 so that we can do solo-breakout rooms (Zoom limits to 100 breakout rooms) and while 100 might feel big I have my ways of making it feel small and interactive throughout!
Participation in this event does not require your camera to be on (but we love it if you want to!). However, it does require participation in small group and pair breakout room conversations - so it’s not a good session to multitask during!
No late arrivals. Because this is a participatory session that builds on itself quickly, doors will close after 10 minutes and those who have not joined yet will not be allowed in.
The session will be recorded and shared. The recording will be focused in the main room, no breakout conversations will be recorded.
After the session you will also receive access to a resource hub that will contain:
A recording of the event that you can access anytime, carefully chaptered to help you jump to key parts
A curated resource of additional material to explore the key concepts and topics (for all types of learners—podcasts, articles, videos, and more!)
A follow-up Q&A video to get to questions we didn’t address during the session
(Lesson 1 for getting more participation – tell people what to expect in terms of participation!)
WHO’S IT FOR?
People who lead sessions on Zoom! Whether you’re leading informal gatherings, educational spaces, team meetings, or trainings, if they take place on Zoom this will help you make those better!
WHEN YOU SIGN UP YOU’LL RECEIVE
After signing up you’ll receive an email with a link to add it to your calendar.
WHAT DOES IT COST?
The cost is $199.
INDIVIDUAL ACCESS DISCOUNTS
If you cannot afford the price of the training, we do not want that to be a barrier to accessing the material.
Discounts are available to those who need financial assistance in order to join the training. To pay a discounted rate drop us an email (hello@facilitator.cards) and let us know what amount of scholarship you need. We offer up to full-scholarships for people in particular fields of work!
GRITTY DETAILS
Each registration is for one person only, if there are multiple people at your organization who would like to attend please contact us for group rates, special discounts, or exceptions.
You will receive the follow-up resources, recording, etc. regardless of whether you attend the training and are welcome to sign up specifically for the recording and resources.