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Mixed in-person and remote participation
Covid-19 has got organizations reaching for online meeting solutions or blended meetings with some people face-to-face and others online.
I thought this would be a time to share (again) some of our learning about it. While our deep learning comes from running BEtreat workshops in this blended way I think there is a lot to learn more generally. We charge the same for both types of participation, holding ourselves to the discipline of creating a special and productive experience for both.
Saving the tech reflections for another post, here we are with some practices that work for us:
- A buddy system – every face-to-face person needs a buddy in the room. the person in the room is responsible for making sure that their buddy can see, hear and be heard.
- A chat function (or something like WhatsApp) – for back-channel conversations. It’s a way to keep up the informal conversations, passing comments, observations, quips, jokes, help I’m lost comments….
- Individual reflection – hourly (or two-hourly) pauses where everyone writes their insights and ongoing questions into a shared google doc. Note that this practice has now spread to the way we do wholly face-to-face meetings too. It’s a great way to get a feedback loop going about what other people are thinking/feeling or what insights are being generated for them.
- Online common room – a space for all online folk to be able to talk/message each other. It gives an identity to online folk and emboldens them to stick up for themselves when it’s not working for them
- Mixed group formations – Lots of time for small group conversations, sometimes mixed face-to-face and online groups, sometimes groups made up of only online participants and only face-to-face
- Guidelines for online participants – about how to make the most of participating online (including things like – call for breaks if you need one, a playful attitude helps)
- Guidelines for face-to-face participants – about making the most of their participation with people participating remotely (including things like – say your name before you speak so online folk know whose voice it is, look into the camera when you speak)
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Reflections from the past
In 2016 I wrote a post “Blending online and face-to-face”. In this post I shared the tech set up we use – our aim being low-tech and affordable to communities with low budget. I also talked about our practices around using the tech and what definitely doesn’t work. I mention that some people prefer participating online and why, and reflect on things we need to get better at.
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In 2014, “I’ll take you with me…” was the title of the post. I described the experience of being online at one of our workshops and summarized some of the lessons learned.
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In 2012 I shared the tech we use. This post serves as a reminder of how quickly tech is changing as we don’t use any of that equipment any more!
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