5 Effective Strategies for Maintaining Productivity During Meetings

Have you ever been in a meeting that just drags on? We’ve all been there. But hey, meetings don’t have to be a slog. With a few smart strategies, you can make them productive and even enjoyable. And speaking of making meetings more efficient, have you ever tried to record a meeting in Google Meet?

Unproductive meetings are a real headache, aren’t they? Here’s what you should know:

  1. Time Wasters: Unproductive meetings can eat up valuable time. It’s frustrating when you could be doing something more useful.
  2. Costly for Companies: When you add up the hours, unproductive meetings can cost companies big bucks. Imagine paying salaries for time not well spent!
  3. Lack of Focus: These meetings often lack a clear agenda. Everyone’s talking, but nothing gets decided.
  4. Too Many People: Ever been in a meeting that’s packed but only a few people are relevant to the topic? That’s a classic sign of an unproductive meeting.
  5. Tech Troubles: Bad connections or tech issues can derail a meeting quickly. It’s like, “Can you hear me now?” for half an hour.
  6. Low Engagement: People zoning out or working on other things during the meeting? Yep, engagement is a goner.
  7. Unclear Outcomes: You leave the meeting and think, “What was the point of that?” If there are no clear actions or decisions, that’s unproductive.
  8. Frequency Overload: Too many meetings can lead to fatigue. It’s like, give us a break to actually do our work!
  9. Negative Impact on Morale: Regular unproductive meetings can really bring down team morale. It’s like, “Not another pointless meeting!”
  10. Hinders Creativity: When meetings are just going through the motions, creativity and innovation take a backseat.

In short, unproductive meetings are not just a time sink; they can have a ripple effect on the entire work culture. Efficient, well-planned meetings are the way to go.

Best Effective Strategies for Maintaining Productivity During Meetings

It’s a game-changer for keeping track of discussions and action items. Here’s how to revamp your meeting productivity:

1. Set a Clear Agenda

  • Before the Meeting: Outline what needs to be discussed. This keeps everyone on track.
  • Share in Advance: Send the agenda to all participants beforehand. It helps them come prepared.

2. Limit Attendees

  • Essential Personnel Only: Invite only those who need to be there. Keeps the meeting focused.
  • Roles and Contributions: Make sure each attendee has a role or a reason to contribute.

3. Time Management

  • Start and End on Time: Respecting everyone’s time sets a professional tone.
  • Time Limits: Assign specific time slots for each agenda item to avoid overruns.

4. Encourage Participation

  • Open Floor: Create opportunities for everyone to speak up. Fresh perspectives are gold.
  • Follow-Up Questions: Encourage questions and discussions. It fosters engagement.

5. Actionable Follow-Ups

  • Assign Tasks: End with clear assignments and deadlines.
  • Meeting Minutes: Send a summary of the meeting and next steps to all attendees.

Remember, effective meetings are about making the best use of everyone’s time. These strategies aren’t just for the USA, Canada, or Europe – they’re universal. So next time you’re planning a meeting, give these tips a try. You might just find your team getting more done in less time!

Got Virtual Meeting Burnout?

Yes, there are some drawbacks, but we need to figure out how to make it work because virtual meetings are here to stay.

Yes, there are some drawbacks, but we need to figure out how to make it work because virtual meetings are here to stay.

Ahh, virtual meetings … they are as ubiquitous as face masks and hand sanitizer in our post-COVID world. Like both of those essentials, we can count virtual meetings among the things we need. They keep us connected, engaged and productive through long, isolating days of quarantining and working from home; they allow us to mingle and collaborate from a safe distance, and they are truly revolutionizing how we work.


Gone are the days of suffering through rush-hour traffic to hit that exact 8 o’clock arrival time, prepping for client visits, or tuning out office noise. Videoconferencing gives us the freedom and flexibility to work more effectively from anywhere.

And yet… Even with the convenience and freedom that technology affords us, spending hours a day in virtual meetings can wear you out physically and mentally. If you’ve wondered if it was just you—then the good news (or bad news?) is that there’s now research that confirms it’s not. Up to 44 percent of employees surveyed by Robert Half said they have experienced video call fatigue since the start of the pandemic.

Women, in particular, report feeling a higher level of exhaustion after virtual meetings than men, according to a Stanford University study. Contributing causes include “mirror anxiety”, or being distracted by your own self-image, and meeting duration, since women’s meetings tend to run longer than men’s. Women have also been shown to feel more physically trapped by the need to stay centered in their camera frame, limiting their freedom of movement.

The Psychological Culprits of Videoconferencing Fatigue

So why is videoconferencing causing some of us angst? Stanford researchers identified these factors:

  • Excessive eye contact: Unlike in-office meetings where everyone is watching the speaker, taking notes, or looking elsewhere, you are looking at everyone else during a virtual meeting—and everyone is looking at you, even if you’re not the one talking. This can trigger anxiety, especially for the more introverted among us. The size and proximity of other people’s faces on the screen can also feel too close for comfort. 

  • Self-focused attention: Seeing yourself on camera, even if you’re just one of many faces in a square on your screen, can cause you to be more critical of yourself and how you appear to others.

  • Reduced mobility: Back-to-back virtual meetings require you to stay put in front of your camera for hours without giving you much time to get up and move around. Not only is this sedentary behavior bad for your health, but it can also contribute to foggy thinking, researchers say. 

  • Cognitive overload: Nonverbal cues and gestures that come naturally to us in person can be harder to interpret over a video call. This forces us to put more thought into the signals we are sending and receiving.


Virtual meetings also come with plenty of frustrating distractions, including coworkers who multitask, don’t position their cameras properly or use the mute button, or leave their camera off entirely. So how do we stay relaxed and present in virtual meetings?

Research-Backed Tips to Reduce Virtual Meeting Burnout

  1. Limit the Length and Number of Meetings: It’s essential to not overload your schedule with back-to-back meetings. It’s advisable to limit meetings to what is necessary and keep them as brief and focused as possible.
  2. Include Breaks: Ensure there are adequate breaks between meetings to rest and refocus. You can also include short breaks during longer meetings.
  3. Establish ‘No Meeting’ Times or Days: Consider setting up certain hours or even entire days where no meetings are scheduled, giving everyone a consistent block of time to focus on individual tasks.
  4. Ensure Meetings Have Clear Agendas: This can help make the meetings more efficient and reduce the mental effort required to participate in them.
  5. Promote Asynchronous Communication: Not every piece of information needs to be communicated in a meeting. Utilize email, team collaboration software, and other tools to share information that can be read and processed at the recipient’s pace.
  6. Offer Training: Provide training on how to use virtual meeting tools efficiently. This can reduce frustration and the cognitive load of navigating the technology.
  7. Promote Healthy Work-Life Boundaries: Encourage staff to switch off notifications after working hours and to take regular breaks. A healthy work-life balance is crucial in preventing burnout.
  8. Encourage Video Off Times: Being on video can add to the pressure of virtual meetings, as it feels like being observed all the time. Allowing attendees to turn off their cameras when they aren’t presenting can provide a sense of relief.
  9. Practice Mindfulness and Stress-Relief Techniques: Techniques such as deep breathing, yoga, and meditation can help reduce stress and avoid burnout.

Please note that these tips should be adapted to the specific needs and circumstances of your organization and team.

Zoom Icebreakers: 55 Pro Tips to Energize Your Virtual Meetings

Zoom icebreakers are a great way to start your virtual meeting on the right foot. They work on two levels: they get people talking, and they establish what works well in the virtual space.

As I was scrolling through my social media feeds this week, I noticed a trend that more tech companies are announcing a permanent move to hybrid or even remote-first approaches for the indefinite future.

As companies look to 2022 and make their make budgeting and resourcing decisions, it’s not a mystery why many are choosing to reduce investment in physical spaces and double down on the remote work infrastructure if their business model allows it. That means many of your meetings will be moving online to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, Skype or any of the video conferencing applications available. 

As the experts in effective weekly meetings, we are often asked by our client what the best ice breakers for virtual meetings are? So, we have compiled a list of the best Zoom Icebreakers for you to increase engagement and productivity at you next team meeting.

That means (you guessed it) all of those Zoom meetings and working remotely are here to stay, too! If you are finding that your team meetings are getting stale and the team is checking out, it might be time to change up your meeting and bring in a Zoom icebreaker—and I’m not talking about the kind of icebreaker my 5-year-old does with her kindergarten class on Zoom (although, if you want to see what the kids are up to these days, check out Go Noodle). While the virtual activities will be different for your team, the purpose of the icebreaker (or sometimes ice breaker) is the same—to energize and engage the team. 

A great icebreaker can make the meeting more fun!

There have been many articles written on the topic, so I’ve scoured the internet to bring you the best ideas I could find, categorized by the purpose of the activity. Just because we have to work from home on a video call, doesn’t mean that we can’t increase team engagement virtually.

We’ve Got You!

Zoom Icebreakers Games – Just for Fun

  1. Theme Days. Have different themes for your weekly team meetings where the team dresses up or uses a virtual background related to the theme. Hawaiian shirt day, PJ day, hat day… you get the idea.
  2. Games. Could be super simple like Paper Rock Scissors, online trivia, or another virtual group game.

This post includes our list of ice breaker questions for virtual meetings.

Ice Breakers for Zoom Meetings at Work

  1. One Word or Phrase. We use this all the time at Rhythm Systems. I’ve seen lots of variations, ranging from very simple (one word to share how you’re feeling today) to more complex (one word to describe our company culture, or whatever the meeting is about). This is a great way to break the ice at the start of the meeting if you are a tight knit team.
  2. Future Headlines. Ask each person to write a newspaper or magazine headline for the company in 10 years. Give everyone time to work independently and have time for sharing with the larger group. 
  3. Company Stories. We often open our monthly meeting with Core Values stories or brags about other team members who we’ve noticed living our core values. You can ask people to share any kind of company story or victory to help people feel more positive and engaged.

Zoom Icebreaker Questions

Round-Robin Questions. If you want to keep it simple, just open your meetings by having everyone answer the same question. You can change it up every day or week (based on your meeting rhythms). As you can imagine, the possibilities for these questions are endless, but if you need some help getting started, see the Icebreaker Question list below.

  • If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
  • What’s your favorite season?
  • Which historical figure would you want to meet?
  • What’s the most interesting place you’ve ever visited?
  • Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
  • What has been the best day of your life so far?
  • What do you want people to remember you for?
  • What has been most influential in your life so far?
  • What’s the worst travel experience you’ve ever had?
  • What’s one important quality of a great boss?
  • What’s your biggest personal goal?
  • What’s the best TV show you’re watching?
  • What’s your biggest accomplishment?
  • What do you like most about remote work?
  • What do you miss most about your office?
  • What did you have for breakfast?
  • What were you most afraid of as a kid?
  • What’s the most-listened-to song in your streaming playlist?
  • What is your favorite junk food or snack?
  • What is your favorite book?
  • What is your favorite animal and why?
  • Have you ever left a one-star review online?
  • What is your #1 personal productivity tip?
  • What’s the most interesting article you’ve read lately?
  • Which website do you use most often?
  • What was your first concert?

Next:

  • Would You Rather? If you want something faster than open questions, try giving everyone an option to choose (Ice Cream or cake? Beach or mountains? Netflix or Hulu? Again, endless possibilities). You can have everyone shout it out, raise a hand to vote or share round-robin as a great Zoom icebreaker game.
  • 2 Truths and a Lie. The same classic game you played in childhood—just now over Zoom! Each person shares 3 things and the group has to guess which is the lie. For smaller groups, keep it conversational and just shout out guesses; for bigger crowds, put the answers on a slide or virtual whiteboard and have everyone annotate a dot with their guesses.
  • Guessing Game. This one involves everyone sharing a little known fact (something they did when they were younger, an interesting skill or story) and others guessing which fact belongs to which team member.
  • Share a Picture. There are so many variations on this one, too. You can ask everyone to share their most recent picture on their camera roll and tell what it is, have people share a photo that’s meaningful to them and say why, ask people to share a photo of their desk or workspace, take a picture of something they saw outside their house, share an embarrassing photo, or their favorite food they cooked. You can also use photos to do a variation on the guessing game – guess who’s baby picture is whose, or ask people to take very zoomed in pictures of objects in their home and have people guess what the picture is.
  • Virtual Background Fun. Rather than just asking people to share a picture of something, ask everyone to come with a themed virtual background (maybe their favorite vacation spot or the place they are most looking forward to visiting after quarantine, or a scene from your favorite TV show or movie).
  • Share an Object. This one’s another classic that works great on Zoom—the old “Show and Tell” from elementary school. You can leave it open-ended or ask for something specific like something that reminds them of their goals, brings them joy, or makes them laugh.
  • Meet the Pets (or Kids, or Partners). By now, you’ve probably had enough guest appearances to feel like you know your coworkers’ pets, roommates and family members, so you might as well make it official. Ask everyone to introduce their person or pet to the team.
  • Virtual Tour. You could take turns having team members give tours of their homes, their workspaces, or their neighborhoods if their signal is strong enough.
  • Build a Birth Map. Create a collaborative map in Google Maps and ask everyone to drop a pin where they were born. Then, you can ask people to share something about where they were born.
  • Essentials or Favorites. Ask each person to share the most essential app on their phone, book on their shelf, appliance in their kitchen, etc. and compile a list of essentials to share with the group. Or, ask everyone’s favorite recipe, TV show, song lyrics, movie lines, etc. and share those.
  • Bucket List. Ask everyone to share their bucket list of things they want to do before they die. We did a similar exercise once, and our founders actually went out of their way to help people on the team cross off items like authoring a book or pursuing a dream of acting.
  • Zoom Background. Some company cultures like to have lots of fun to build employee engagement and motivation uniquely. Zoom has many backgrounds built in that you can choose from, or you can download your own. You can also use Snapchat filters to do everything from putting a cat on your head, a funny pair of sunglasses or looking like the tiger king.

Zoom Activities to Build Trust and Deepen Relationships

  1. Personality Inventories. If you have more time, and some budget to invest, you can also have your team take personality tests and share the results – what most surprised them or one thing each person felt was most and least accurate about their results. This is a wonderful way to learn about each other; popular tools include Myers Briggs, StrengthsFinder, DiSC and there are lots of free quizzes out there, too.
  2. Life stories. Pair people up into breakout groups and ask them to take turns sharing their life stories in 5 minutes. Then, the person listening has to tell the story to the larger group.
  3. Common Ground. Put the team into small groups or pairs and ask them to list as many things as possible they have in common in a set amount of time. The team with the longest list wins!
  4. Rapid Fire Teams. Randomly assign people into pairs in breakout rooms and have them complete a task together in 2 minutes: create a “secret handshake” based on their hometown, a “touchdown dance” based on a recent victory, or a nickname based on a childhood story.
  5. Fun Fact. Have each of the team members share a fun fact about themselves that they don’t think anyone else on the team would know. This is a fun game and always brings up something to engage the team.

Promoting Teamwork and Problem-Solving Exercises

  1. Simulated problems. Create scenarios based on something the team may actually face one day. Ask them to strategize together and come up with a solution and a plan to communicate and execute on it.
  2. Alien Invasion. Divide up the group and tell them that aliens have landed. Each team has to create 5 simple drawings to explain what your company does so the aliens will understand. Share the images and look for common themes from team to team.
  3. Letter Hunt. Put the team into breakout rooms and give them all 5 minutes to find an object for every letter of the alphabet (a – apple, b – book, etc.). One person on each team will write the objects down. The team will have to communicate well to prevent overlap and get creative on some of the letters.
  4. Birthday Lineup. In this challenge, the participants have to put themselves in order by their birthday – month and day, not year ? – without talking or typing to each other. Each person has to write down the number in order they believe they fall (if there are 10 people and I think my birthday is first, I’d write down 1.) When time’s up, everyone reveals their numbers and the facilitator checks to see how the team did.
  5. Desert Island. Give each small group a list of items and ask them to select which 3 they would bring on a desert island with them and why. The teams have to work together to come up with the list.

Exercises to Get Moving on Zoom

  1. Dance Break. If the team is getting punchy, put on a song and do a 30-second dance break. Cameras optional for this – you can get a good laugh from each other’s dad moves, or you can let people dance like nobody’s watching. Another fun version of this is to have everyone mute Zoom and dance to their own music.
  2. Moving Trivia. For a longer brain break, you can ask a few yes or no trivia questions and have people stand up for yes and sit down for no, or some other physical activity (jump for yes, hand up for yes, etc.) If someone misses a question, they can turn off the Zoom camera to be “out” until the next round.
  3. Pass the Love. Ask everyone to turn on the Gallery view in Zoom and stand up. Have everyone think of something wonderful to share with someone else on the team. When it’s your turn, pretend to hold a box or ball, explain your lovely idea, and pretend to pass the box to a person who’s next to you in the Gallery view of Zoom. They receive the box and pass the love to someone else.

A few more virtual icebreaker ideas:

  • Solve a riddle. Before a group video call, ask guests to present their favorite riddle using the icebreaker question. Break attendees into circles with a different riddle for each group to solve. Allow guests to venture into other circles where they think they’ll be most useful.
  • Would you rather? As a slight variation to the open-ended icebreaker question, ask guests a “would you rather” question before they enter the room, such as “Would you rather talk like Yoda or breathe like Darth Vader for the rest of your life?”. Upon entry, ask guests to elaborate on their reasoning.
  • Virtual scavenger hunt. For this icebreaker question, ask guests to name one everyday household item. Once everyone is on the call, share the list of common household items for guests to collect. The first person to make it back to the virtual room with all the scavenger hunt items in hand wins.
  • Virtual desk tour. Before entering the room, ask guests to name the most interesting item on their desk or within their sight. Once on the video call, ask guests to channel their inner tour guides by giving 60-second tours of their workspace and immediate surroundings. It sounds simple, but the conversations and personal information that can arise from this simple exercise can be quite fascinating.
  • Trivia. To prep guests for this activity, ask a starter trivia question using the icebreaker question so participants can start flexing their trivia muscles. Anyone who gets the trivia question right, gets a prize. Then, break guests into groups and read a list of trivia questions aloud for each group to answer. Each correct answer earns the group one point. The group with the most points at the end of the game also wins a prize. (The group with the least points still probably had fun.)  

It’s easy to create breakout groups (aka: circles) on Wonder.

Virtual Meetings – Beyond Simple Video Conferencing

Remote work is an opportunity to end unproductive meetings forever. It just takes a bit of planning from the leader.

Remote work has changed meetings forever.

Sure, it’s made it harder for leaders. It used to be simple for leaders to gather everyone in a room and hash things out. Now, team members may be dotted all over the world.

However, the widespread migration to remote work, coupled with advances in virtual meeting software and video conferencing technology, has also changed things for the better. Or at least, it should have.

It’s a golden opportunity to end Death by PowerPoint and meetings for meetings’ sake. It also allows remote team leaders to democratise virtual meetings, eliminating those times when the person with the loudest voice dominates the agenda.

Here are five things remote teams can do to take the opportunity and make virtual meetings something everyone looks forward to rather than dreads.

1 – Take responsibility

As a leader, a key facet of effective remote management is to ensure that your virtual meetings go to plan, with everyone engaged and not tuning out, so you can get your message across and people leave understanding what they have to do.

No one is saying it’s easy now you’re remote, bringing people together from different backgrounds and cultures using a virtual meeting platform still has its challenges. But, you need to know that the old way of doing things, where the leader talks and everyone listens, doesn’t translate well to a dynamic remote work culture.

You may need to get out of your comfort zone to make a virtual meeting truly effective, more so than in days past, but it will be worth it.

2 – Could it be an email?

First up, consider whether you need to have a virtual meeting in the first place. When you were in the office, a team meeting or virtual standup on a Monday morning was ‘something you did’ because it was easy to set up. Now, you’re taking people away from other things, so make sure it’s worth their while.

For example, if your plan for the meeting is just to do simple screen sharing with slides and a description from you of what’s on the slides then why not record it as an asynchronous update video and send that out instead? Always look for reasons to adopt asynchronous communication over gratuitous online meetings, letting your people respond on their terms rather than yours.

3 – Include everyone in your virtual meetings

If it has to be a virtual meeting, you must ensure everyone feels included. However, that’s not just letting people speak.

Virtual meetings depend on technology to ensure that participants can see, be seen, speak and listen, wherever they may be in the world so long as they have a reliable internet connection. You may have access to a top-of-the-range laptop and fibre broadband, but what about your people? If they are going to work remotely in your team, you must make sure they have all the tech they need.

Now, you must plan for everyone in your meeting to participate in some way, so they are engaged and do not tune out. For example, during your meeting, go around the group individually every fifteen minutes (if not less) to check they understand and agree with what’s been discussed so far.

4 – Sense conflict among team members

It’s extremely hard to sense conflict when using video conferencing or running a virtual meeting as you may not necessarily pick up on visual clues, like a subtle frown or rolling eyes. However, just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. As a leader, it’s your role to relieve conflict, whether it’s with you or between people in your team.

Listen for prolonged silences or changes in tone of voice among your people. Look out for people trying to make a point but can’t get a word in. If someone is unduly dominating the conversation, try to help others give their input.

If you sense real conflict between team members, try not to dwell on it in the meeting. Instead, deal with it outside of that setting.

5 – Start as you mean to go on

If you get virtual meetings off to a good start, you boost the chances of the rest of it going well.

Start on time, but use the start of it to welcome everybody, introduce people who don’t already know each other and generally catch up. It loosens everybody up and makes them feel warm toward having a meeting, which they may not have felt before.

Once you formally kick off the meeting, make it clear what you’re all there to do, so everybody can focus on the task. Talk about the plan for the meeting and who will be performing any specific roles. If you have any ‘housekeeping rules’ such as keeping your camera on or saying your name when you start talking, now’s the time to make it clear.

Oh, and finish five minutes early. Everyone loves that!

Next steps

As RemoteWorks Founder Tamara Sanderson told our Leading Remotely podcast:

‘There’s a lot of value in adding a bit of play into anything that is already routine within your schedule. So, a lot of teams will have a weekly meeting. How do you start the first 10 minutes with something that is fun and that is playful?

‘There are so many people within an organisation that are creative and waiting to have this moment to share something fun. I think within that, the leader’s responsibility is to give space and make it okay.’

Everything You Need to Know About Hybrid Events

We’ve seen a rapid evolution in the hybrid space—and if we look into our crystal ball, we see some exciting developments in our future.

Hybrid events: we’re still getting used to them, and it looks like they’re sticking around. If you’re still in the “What the heck is that?” phase, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s start with the basics:

What is a hybrid event?

Like most things that are improved with an online experience, hybrid events merge two pretty great things into something even more awesome. Combining virtual and in-person events just makes sense—it opens up a local event to be more inclusive so everyone can join—defying space, distance, and time, to connect everyone, everywhere.

What are the benefits of hybrid events?

In short: Vast. Here are just a few:

  • Attendance. Hybrid events aren’t limited by the capacity of the venue.
  • Sponsorship. More sets of eyes = more potential sponsorship revenue.
  • More extensive reach. Hybrid events can be attended by anyone, anywhere in the world, allowing you to reach a broader audience than ever before.
  • Increased networking. Due to the wider reach and increased attendance, attendees have a greater opportunity to network and connect with people they wouldn’t have otherwise met.
  • Metrics. Tracking detailed online interactions and engagement is much easier.

What challenges will I face?

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Like anything new, perfecting the art of hybrid event-planning is just a question of getting the hang of it. Here are a few things to look out for:

  • Engagement. Your main challenge will be finding a way to engage all attendees—in-person and remote—fully and equally without planning totally separate events. Think carefully about the best experiences for both your physical and virtual audiences—which are the experiences that can intersect? Bingo: there’s your hybrid sweet spot.
  • Complexity. Catering to dual audiences while integrating multiple technologies and managing costs can be a juggling act. The fix? Identify a single, streamlined system that supports a hybrid event of your size and format to keep costs and complexity to a minimum.
  • Technology. Finally, it’s important to have the right technology to facilitate interaction and keep things running smoothly for both live and virtual audiences. Make sure your physical venue is well-equipped with all the WiFi bandwidth you’ll need, and do your best to provide virtual participants with crisp, clear, high-performing audio and video.

Can I do it alone?

Absolutely—with proper planning and organization, you can pull off a successful hybrid event by yourself. That said, it’s worth bearing in mind that it does make things a bunch easier (especially as the number of attendees increases) to have someone help facilitate things, like chatroom Q&As or managing any unforeseen problems that come up. Herding cats is no fun alone (take it from this team of devoted but long-suffering cat parents). If you find yourself heading into “(screaming inside) This is too overwhelming!” territory, there are experienced virtual event organizers or agencies whose help you can enlist support for all the nitty gritty details.

How can I create a successful hybrid event?

Hybrid events are your oyster: they can be as simple—or as complex—as you want to make them. Whatever the scope, outline every minute or every stage of the event to ensure it goes off without a hitch. Plan, plan, and plan some more! And then plan ahead for any potential detours to that plan. In other words, have backup plans for your plans!

We put together a step-by-step guide in our The Secret to Creating an Action-Packed Virtual Event blog. Follow the guide and you shall reach your destination.

What are some cool/unique hybrid event ideas?

When it comes to hybrid events, the sky’s the limit! We outlined a few in our blog Here, There, and Everywhere. The Evolution of Hybrid Events. Here are just a handful:

  • Speed dating or networking. In-person speed daters or networkers can alternate between talking to virtual prospects on-screen and flirting in-person.
  • Wine and food tasting. For the gourmands among us, consider linking up your local wine or food tasting club into a broader virtual network of chefs, vintners, and other foodies from around the world to really expand your palate.
  • Workshops & education. Educators of all types can easily broadcast their classroom lessons online to learners anywhere in real time. Encourage live participation from virtual attendees by asking them to “raise their hands” for questions, just like in-person students would.
  • Hubs. If you’re hosting an event—say a hackathon or other work-related project—encourage participants who live in the same area or region to get together in person and tune in together.

Are hybrid events the new standard of “eventing?”

We think so. There are some of us out there who never wanted to go out in the first place and others who thrive on face-to-face interaction. The hybrid way of doing things accommodates both—what more could you want?

What will hybrid events look like in the future?

In the last couple of years (2020, in particular), we’ve seen a rapid evolution in the hybrid space—and if we look into our crystal ball, we see some exciting developments in our future. Holograms? Maybe. Avatars? Probably already there.

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