Any tips for blended (remote/video and live in-person) meetings?
December 6, 2022 8:36 AM Subscribe
How are you running work meetings/events where attendees join remotely (e.g. Zoom or Teams) while others have gathered in one or more location/s. Interested in the gear you use and importantly, how are you managing meetings to get the most out of the experience?
I'm thinking of AGMs of up to 100, 150 persons.. Social events where clusters of 10-50 might join, along with individuals from their homes (e.g. virtual trivia night). On the social side, how are you optimizing for visuals/audio? Primarily a distributed workforce context but more and more this is just something we'll have to do more of in our lives.
I'm thinking of AGMs of up to 100, 150 persons.. Social events where clusters of 10-50 might join, along with individuals from their homes (e.g. virtual trivia night). On the social side, how are you optimizing for visuals/audio? Primarily a distributed workforce context but more and more this is just something we'll have to do more of in our lives.
Slightly different context from the sound of it, but for hybrid teaching and workshops with one main in person group and the online folks being sometimes in pairs but mostly individual, I’ve found that separate facilitators for in person and online participation/discussion is helpful. It’s hard for one person to pay attention to hands raised or who is/isn’t participating in both modalities.
With multiple networked in-person groups, a facilitator/leader for each location sounds like a good idea, as do the rest of the recommendations above. Make sure that those facilitators/leaders know how to use the videoconferencing software well, including troubleshooting some more common technical problems. If individuals will be joining online not in a group, a little pre-meeting orientation to the videoconferencing software may be helpful for them (maybe - I have a couple colleagues who have the same problems using Teams in every single meeting I’ve had with them, and say the same exact two-minute apology/complaint spiel about it every time, despite instruction on use of the software; but the long apology/complaint intro to comments or questions can be avoided in many other cases through orientation to the videoconferencing software).
If it’s not possible to pass a microphone around at the various in-person locations for comments or questions, be sure that a facilitator repeats the question or summarizes the comment for all participants.
Posting an agenda that includes a timeline is helpful for all meetings, but especially helpful for meetings like you describe that have a greater risk of becoming chaotic. Start the meeting with a review of the agenda and the meeting facilitation method that will be used. “We want to hear from you, here’s how to participate” is better framing than something more punitive. Eg. encourage participants to jot down questions and comments to bring up during the relevant agenda item so that they don’t forget their questions or ideas (implicit in this is that participants need to be aware of the agenda and responsible for sticking to it themselves, but it’s a more effective framing). Depending on the meeting context, it’s also helpful to either have some way of either accepting feedback and answering questions later if your run out of time for a given agenda item, or of extending the times for agenda points if it turns out to be necessary. Summarizing comments or feedback in small batches is always good for ensuring that would feel heard and so don’t keep trying to make the same point, and overlaps with the need to be more intentional in facilitating discussion or interaction between the different remote groups in a hybrid meeting. Basically, everything that helps make a meeting run well ordinarily still helps, and often becomes even more important.
posted by eviemath at 10:00 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
With multiple networked in-person groups, a facilitator/leader for each location sounds like a good idea, as do the rest of the recommendations above. Make sure that those facilitators/leaders know how to use the videoconferencing software well, including troubleshooting some more common technical problems. If individuals will be joining online not in a group, a little pre-meeting orientation to the videoconferencing software may be helpful for them (maybe - I have a couple colleagues who have the same problems using Teams in every single meeting I’ve had with them, and say the same exact two-minute apology/complaint spiel about it every time, despite instruction on use of the software; but the long apology/complaint intro to comments or questions can be avoided in many other cases through orientation to the videoconferencing software).
If it’s not possible to pass a microphone around at the various in-person locations for comments or questions, be sure that a facilitator repeats the question or summarizes the comment for all participants.
Posting an agenda that includes a timeline is helpful for all meetings, but especially helpful for meetings like you describe that have a greater risk of becoming chaotic. Start the meeting with a review of the agenda and the meeting facilitation method that will be used. “We want to hear from you, here’s how to participate” is better framing than something more punitive. Eg. encourage participants to jot down questions and comments to bring up during the relevant agenda item so that they don’t forget their questions or ideas (implicit in this is that participants need to be aware of the agenda and responsible for sticking to it themselves, but it’s a more effective framing). Depending on the meeting context, it’s also helpful to either have some way of either accepting feedback and answering questions later if your run out of time for a given agenda item, or of extending the times for agenda points if it turns out to be necessary. Summarizing comments or feedback in small batches is always good for ensuring that would feel heard and so don’t keep trying to make the same point, and overlaps with the need to be more intentional in facilitating discussion or interaction between the different remote groups in a hybrid meeting. Basically, everything that helps make a meeting run well ordinarily still helps, and often becomes even more important.
posted by eviemath at 10:00 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
One diy workaround I have done for hybrid teaching (me and some students in a classroom, the rest joining individually via zoom) is during the group discussion / q&a time I pass around (in the in-person space) a laptop or a phone that is logged onto zoom to whoever is speaking as the audio input for students attending remotely. I have the zoom meeting projected on the screen, with the chat visible, but also encourage students in the classroom to be logged onto the zoom meeting (muted of course) so they can also read and participate in the zoom chat.
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:21 PM on December 6, 2022
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:21 PM on December 6, 2022
I meant to add, I realize you will actually have an equipment budget, but even the best conference microphone will have limits in terms of audio quality.
Do think about how in-person attendees will be able to interact with virtual attendees and create multiple potential points of interaction. Tools like mentimeter.com can be helpful here.
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:25 PM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Do think about how in-person attendees will be able to interact with virtual attendees and create multiple potential points of interaction. Tools like mentimeter.com can be helpful here.
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:25 PM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
There are two separate big areas to consider in this question:
1. Managing an agenda to keep both virtual and in-person attendants engaged
2. Logistics of managing a small or large hybrid audience (this is what I can provide some tips on below)
Our organization has had challenges in both areas and it has been a error and fix type situation for the last two years. Some lessons we learned on the logistics side:
1. Sound - Ensure the microphones capture all the voices in the in-person room for the online audience. If everyone needs to speak, I would suggest renting or fitting out a room specially with directional microphones around the room. We tried other methods and online listeners could not hear the speakers in the room and eventually disengaged. You can mute all the virtual attendants and unmute them as they raise their hands. Or ask them nicely to mute themselves until they are ready to speak.
2. Visuals - Make sure there are two or more big screens/huge projection screens in the room. One showing the presentation and the other showing the speaker if there is a virtual presentation. When there is no virtual speaker, you can revert to the gallery view of all the participants on one side and the in-person speaker on the other side. It is really nice to have an automated camera built into the room to follow faces that talk. If you don't have this, you can join as a participant on your laptop and move the laptop camera around the room following the in-person speakers. The reason why you do this is to keep the virtual audience engaged and the expressions of each of the speakers.
3. Videos - If you expect to stream videos during the meeting, make sure to use Vimeo or Youtube or some sort of higher end streaming service instead of streaming directly from your computer. If you share your video from your computer, the quality will be terrible and jumpy even if you select optimize for video/sound, etc. Much better to share the Vimeo or YouTube and share the links with the virtual audience if they have trouble hearing or seeing video.
3. Agenda and Etiquette - Set the etiquette and agenda in advance of the meeting depending on the type of meeting. Whether audience will be muted/unmuted, how speakers will be called, the agenda including times of presentations, outcomes to be reached and links to the presentation, whether chat will be enabled, how long Q&As will be, masking and COVID tests, what to do in case people test positive, etc.
4. Double the Admins - It is extremely useful dare I say necessary to have separate people manning the in-person and virtual meetings. The in-person person would be tasked with in-room AV and other meeting items (greeting people, following speakers on the camera video, assisting in-person speakers with presentations, in-person microphones, troubleshooting in-person items). The virtual admin would help the virtual audience and speakers by putting the spotlight on the speaker, moderating the chat, assisting virtual speakers, etc.
5. Meeting Moderator - I think this is very useful to make sure the timing works in the meeting and the speakers do not get bogged down in Q&A. Also helpful to keep the tone light and to manage any emotional fallout from unpleasant interactions or unexpected presentation extras. The moderator can be sure to be inclusive of both virtual and in-person audiences.
6. Breaks - I find building in breaks every 2-3 hours is really important otherwise your audience will mutiny and make their own breaks. Be sure to let your virtual audience know when to come back. Have coffee and tea and chocolate on hand at all times.
7. Review your Online Speakers and Online Presentations (Dress Rehearsal) - Make sure to personally vet and watch all the presentations in advance so you know how long the presentations are, how engaging the speaker is and if there is any surprise content. We learned this one the hard way and we always do this now. Even better if you record the speakers and presentations on video beforehand and just play the recorded video and have the speaker on hand to answer questions.
8. In-Person Run-Through - Since there are so many moving pieces in a hybrid meeting, it is essential to do a run-through in person with people to help troubleshoot the virtual portion. This is the time to make all the AV mistakes and to iron out the logistics kinks. I like to do this the day before and I schedule 3 hours just in case for spaces where I have not managed the AV. I may only take up one hour but I have certainly took up 3 hours in the past as I am not familiar with some spaces.
9. Thank yous - Take time to thank the virtual and in-person audiences. I have been in some meetings where they have forgotten to do this and the meetings ended abruptly. It left a bad impression.
posted by ichimunki at 1:31 PM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
1. Managing an agenda to keep both virtual and in-person attendants engaged
2. Logistics of managing a small or large hybrid audience (this is what I can provide some tips on below)
Our organization has had challenges in both areas and it has been a error and fix type situation for the last two years. Some lessons we learned on the logistics side:
1. Sound - Ensure the microphones capture all the voices in the in-person room for the online audience. If everyone needs to speak, I would suggest renting or fitting out a room specially with directional microphones around the room. We tried other methods and online listeners could not hear the speakers in the room and eventually disengaged. You can mute all the virtual attendants and unmute them as they raise their hands. Or ask them nicely to mute themselves until they are ready to speak.
2. Visuals - Make sure there are two or more big screens/huge projection screens in the room. One showing the presentation and the other showing the speaker if there is a virtual presentation. When there is no virtual speaker, you can revert to the gallery view of all the participants on one side and the in-person speaker on the other side. It is really nice to have an automated camera built into the room to follow faces that talk. If you don't have this, you can join as a participant on your laptop and move the laptop camera around the room following the in-person speakers. The reason why you do this is to keep the virtual audience engaged and the expressions of each of the speakers.
3. Videos - If you expect to stream videos during the meeting, make sure to use Vimeo or Youtube or some sort of higher end streaming service instead of streaming directly from your computer. If you share your video from your computer, the quality will be terrible and jumpy even if you select optimize for video/sound, etc. Much better to share the Vimeo or YouTube and share the links with the virtual audience if they have trouble hearing or seeing video.
3. Agenda and Etiquette - Set the etiquette and agenda in advance of the meeting depending on the type of meeting. Whether audience will be muted/unmuted, how speakers will be called, the agenda including times of presentations, outcomes to be reached and links to the presentation, whether chat will be enabled, how long Q&As will be, masking and COVID tests, what to do in case people test positive, etc.
4. Double the Admins - It is extremely useful dare I say necessary to have separate people manning the in-person and virtual meetings. The in-person person would be tasked with in-room AV and other meeting items (greeting people, following speakers on the camera video, assisting in-person speakers with presentations, in-person microphones, troubleshooting in-person items). The virtual admin would help the virtual audience and speakers by putting the spotlight on the speaker, moderating the chat, assisting virtual speakers, etc.
5. Meeting Moderator - I think this is very useful to make sure the timing works in the meeting and the speakers do not get bogged down in Q&A. Also helpful to keep the tone light and to manage any emotional fallout from unpleasant interactions or unexpected presentation extras. The moderator can be sure to be inclusive of both virtual and in-person audiences.
6. Breaks - I find building in breaks every 2-3 hours is really important otherwise your audience will mutiny and make their own breaks. Be sure to let your virtual audience know when to come back. Have coffee and tea and chocolate on hand at all times.
7. Review your Online Speakers and Online Presentations (Dress Rehearsal) - Make sure to personally vet and watch all the presentations in advance so you know how long the presentations are, how engaging the speaker is and if there is any surprise content. We learned this one the hard way and we always do this now. Even better if you record the speakers and presentations on video beforehand and just play the recorded video and have the speaker on hand to answer questions.
8. In-Person Run-Through - Since there are so many moving pieces in a hybrid meeting, it is essential to do a run-through in person with people to help troubleshoot the virtual portion. This is the time to make all the AV mistakes and to iron out the logistics kinks. I like to do this the day before and I schedule 3 hours just in case for spaces where I have not managed the AV. I may only take up one hour but I have certainly took up 3 hours in the past as I am not familiar with some spaces.
9. Thank yous - Take time to thank the virtual and in-person audiences. I have been in some meetings where they have forgotten to do this and the meetings ended abruptly. It left a bad impression.
posted by ichimunki at 1:31 PM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
From lots of experience, this kind of event is of the highest order of difficulty, and it’s entirely possible to pour tons of effort, money, and staff into a hybrid event and come away with very disappointing results.
There are not a lot of good examples of what success looks like, and those that exist maintain pretty firm walls between the two groups of participants. They are effectively running two separate audiences, each with an interface to the same “content”. The scale is wrong, but I think of professional sports: there’s an in-person audience and a remote audience, and they have zero interaction, separate ‘fronts-of-house’, and very different needs and experiences.
My concrete suggestions before tackling anything on the 10+ people scale:
1. find a small handful of people to be your event crew and figure out a format for planning and retrospectives that works for you
2. run some smaller in-person OR online events to tune up and get on the same wavelength as a team
3. run a smaller hybrid event and debrief thoroughly
posted by sixswitch at 5:12 PM on December 7, 2022
There are not a lot of good examples of what success looks like, and those that exist maintain pretty firm walls between the two groups of participants. They are effectively running two separate audiences, each with an interface to the same “content”. The scale is wrong, but I think of professional sports: there’s an in-person audience and a remote audience, and they have zero interaction, separate ‘fronts-of-house’, and very different needs and experiences.
My concrete suggestions before tackling anything on the 10+ people scale:
1. find a small handful of people to be your event crew and figure out a format for planning and retrospectives that works for you
2. run some smaller in-person OR online events to tune up and get on the same wavelength as a team
3. run a smaller hybrid event and debrief thoroughly
posted by sixswitch at 5:12 PM on December 7, 2022
Response by poster: Thanks all, I will be incorporating suggestions into a May AGM in the coming year.
I tried to facilitate a blended social event on Saturday night, it was not successful. The people in the room had a great time, but the remote attendee was not amplified for audio.. rather, we tried to run audio through the projector speaker and it did not work. The camera was a nice feature, we were able to pan the room. Audio is the missing link at this point.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:39 AM on December 12, 2022
I tried to facilitate a blended social event on Saturday night, it was not successful. The people in the room had a great time, but the remote attendee was not amplified for audio.. rather, we tried to run audio through the projector speaker and it did not work. The camera was a nice feature, we were able to pan the room. Audio is the missing link at this point.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:39 AM on December 12, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
1. For general structure, a 20-30 minute presentation/content with visuals (PowerPoint, dataset, shared word document, etc.) is best, this could be a little longer if it’s a work meeting with a lot of material to cover. Then move to small group discussion or activities, with in-person people working together and virtual people going into break-out rooms (or if you really want to maximize cross-platform work, have the in-person people log into the online platform on their own computers or laptops that you provide). If you need/want to do a general Q&A or large group discussion, you can ask each small group to come back with one question or reflection to share and then have the primary presenter respond.
2. Sound quality is the most important element of hybrid events, particularly for the virtual attendees. A simple snowball mic has been fine in small spaces, but for large groups it’s worth investing in a high quality mic and speaker.
3. Have one person or team managing the “in person” component of the event and a different person/team managing the online component. The facilitator/presenter can be either live or virtual, but having them share some visual content (ppt, document, etc as referenced above) is helpful. This content should be shared virtually (I.e. don’t point the computer camera at a big projector screen) during the presentation.
posted by sleepingwithcats at 9:31 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]