Next available workshop: October 27, 2022. Register now!

As an organization or a business rooted in community your work is about building engagement and connection, supporting and growing a sense of belonging. You meet with your colleagues to plan for new services, with staff and volunteers for training, for outreach and for funding support. And every time you meet together, whether it is in person or in an online, you have the opportunity to build connection and community that can last long after the session is over.

How you gather matters deeply. And the pandemic has made that particularly challenging. Instead of reading the room, you are reading many small digital squares. “What’s going on in there? How do I know if participants are engaged?” You might be struggling to create dynamic gatherings with great participation and end up feeling like you are performing online, instead of being authentic. No one has their camera on...and oh the zoom fatigue!

Six months ago, a study came out that said half of professionals working remotely report a high degree of exhaustion from daily online meetings. No surprise, right? Still, two-thirds of those surveyed agreed that being on video is best for engagement. Here’s the kicker. Those same people said only 11% of their video meetings were being used for connecting and engaging! It doesn’t have to be this way. What if you could transform information download into meaning-making and make content memorable and more actionable after a session is over. 

What if you could ditch some of the eye-glazing housekeeping, and provide more opportunities for connections between participants, not just with the leader/facilitator, or the content. What if you could do all that, and still reach all your meeting goals?

Building connection and community one meeting at a time is a half-day professional development opportunity that focuses on actionable ways to make online gatherings (meetings, conferences, training, outreach and more) better serve your goals and the needs of those you are meeting with. And bonus! The practices that are offered can all be applied to in person gathering as well.

By the end of this 3-hour online session you will be able to:

• Develop a purpose-led opening that invites immediate engagement from

• participants.

• Identify and apply integral practices for sustaining engagement a welcoming and

• safe place for maximum participant engagement. (framework, invitations,

• presence)

• Select new indicators of participant engagement.

• Construct a memorable closing that makes the content stick.

You will leave with templates and tip sheets including:

- Worksheet: Housekeeping busters that make way for more engagement

- Tip sheet: 5 ways to open with engagement and close with impact

- Template: How to build a flexible agenda that works for you

Endorsements:

“This was probably one of the best workshops I've attended in a LONG time. It's such a simple concept but she actually brought so many useful tricks and tips for engagement. Her personality was engaging and just made zoom feel so much more human than I've looked at it in the past. The permission to just let people have their cameras off if they need a break was refreshing because she is right, it's exhausting to be on all the time. I will highly recommend this to everyone!”

– Workshop participant

“I think the use of grounding exercises, such as taking a moment for deep breaths together was effective and I'm going to do it likely for every virtual event I facilitate from now on. Phenomenal presentation, and clever cycles of engagement. You left me with a lot to think about, and I'm eager to put these lessons into practice.”

– Workshop participant