183 - The Secret to Engaging Virtual Meetings with John Chen

We’ve had plenty of opportunities to practice online facilitation since 2020, but have we reached a plateau? Has complacency crept in?

John Chen has been hosting (and training others to host) engaging virtual meetings for longer than many of us have even thought about them! He’s the perfect candidate to discuss this topic.

John joins me in this episode to discuss the magic ingredients of online facilitation — and why an overemphasis on tech and tools has led to us abandoning deeper personal and interpersonal engagement.

Find out about:

• What happens in the first minute of virtual events
• Why John is wary about making tech the main focus of virtual events
• Why forced-on-camera participants are worse than off-camera participants
• Why engagement is platform-, tool-, and activity-agnostic
• How to facilitate tangential conversations — and how to know when to redirect them
• Why the chat function in online events is a sacred space of simultaneity
• Bridging the gap between well-run and transformational online events

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Links

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Author of Engaging Virtual Meetings, published by Wiley and Sons

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