Read on to learn how to prevent a share screen disaster. Top client Keith Streckenbach https://pharmacystars.com invited me to an amazing business program in Redondo Beach. Co-founders Todd Stevenson and Leon Sharyon were presenting about their ground breaking company, Abstract Ice, that has invented a new process […]
I’m John Chen, author of Engaging Virtual Meetings, and many people ask what equipment do I use in my setup? My setup is the results of 1,000s of failures as my motto is #FailFaster. Just fill out this form and you’ll immediately get a link […]
Virtual conferences have been ushering in transformation in corporate communications, especially since more and more jobs are now welcoming remote and hybrid set-ups. Because of its popularity, the global video conferencing market size is expected to be worth $19.7 billion by 2030, with a projected […]
February is Black History Month and I had the honor to produce the “State of AfricaTown 2022”. The program was a big success with over 284 people logging into zoom, 39 social media shares, 600+ view and over 1,500 people reached all organically. Click to […]
The Zoom Fatigue struggle is real! Let’s face it: Many people are turned off by having to attend yet another meeting on what’s become the ubiquitous online meeting app, or—fairly or not—really any virtual platform.If you want truly engaging virtual meetings, then learn the “ENGAGE” method. […]
#stopapihate If you didn’t know, I’m Chinese American and I’m proud of that. My father was a “Paper Son” and immigrated to this country in 1912. I had tried the path of assimilation and trying to be like everyone else in my youth. As I’ve […]
Using the virtual background without a green screen gives you the ability to make things disappear. Just duck out of your video camera and take a picture. Make that picture your virtual background. Then use any single-colored paper, such as white. As you move it […]
Goals: Have a fun dance party. Dancing is a way to bring energy to your next meeting. Dancing helps your attendees’ heart, increases energy, makes you feel happy, and helps eliminate stress and depression. Time: 2–60 minutes Participants: 2–Max Technology: Audio, video, share computer audio […]
Join the Facebook Group “Engaging Virtual Meetings” where 1,000s of professionals who are passionate about engaging virtual meetings are getting their questions answered and having meaningful conversations. It’s free. Just go to http://facebook.com/groups/EngagingVirtualMeetings and answer the questions to join. You’ll find witty and wicked smart […]
Do you have problems presenting virtually? Do you want your attendees to stop cringing when you present? Do you want to become the top 20% of all virtual speakers? Here’s my gift to you. Just complete this form and you’ll get my 16 point Engaging […]
This Fast Company article by Bob Bejan, VP of Global Events at Microsoft nails key points that resonate with me. Click to read the whole article. Here are the main 8 points with my take on them: 1. THINK CINEMATIC RATHER THAN THEATRICAL This is […]
Goals: Have your attendees work better together by trading places.Time: 20–30 minutesParticipants: 8–12; even numbers Technology: Audio, video, share screen, Microsoft Excel or Google SheetsCategory: Innovation, collaboration, communication Setup:Step 1: Download the Office Move Template for Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Step 2: Save the […]
Goals: Win all the “money” and have fun with your attendees. Poker continues to be an engaging game of fun and socializing. In the 1837 edition of Foster’s Complete Hoyle, R. F. Foster wrote: “The game of poker, as first played in the United States, […]
Virtual Backgrounds—Your Setting Can Create Pure Laughs to Serious Business Goals: Change your background for fun or for business. Do you want to be in a beautiful office overlooking the ocean? Do you want to be on the site of your favorite TV show? Do […]
Memory Match Breakouts Goals: Network and play a game. Remember the memory match game where you shuffle and put down cards and you and another person would try to match as many as possible? This is the video meeting version! Memory Match Breakouts combines one-on-one […]
Where in the World—International Networking Goals: Learn where attendees are calling in from visually. This is a fast networking exercise akin to putting a pin in a world map when you arrive at a conference. By using the annotate stamp feature, you can visually show […]
Goals: Improve your attendees’ collaboration and problem solving. Is your team having problems working together to solve problems? Towers of Hanoi is an exercise where a team of attendees must work together to transfer a tower of items from one location to another. This simple […]
Goals: Have attendees create a case study by editing a document at the same time. Does it take forever for your meeting to create a document? Do you wish you could snap your fingers and get it done? Do you want to tap all the […]
Goals: Present more information in less time. Are you tired of presentations that are too long? Just like how TED talks changed the format for keynotes, PechaKucha has changed the format for presentations. PechaKucha allows you to show 20 slides for 20 seconds each for […]
Here are some great questions for starting a conversation. There are a lot of random conversation starters to get you started and then conversation questions listed by topic. You can start with the random questions or find a topic that interests you. There’s no right place to […]
Reverse Charades—Improving Everybody’s Nonverbal Communication This video just crossed over 5,000 views, THANK YOU! Goals: Play charades with more engagement and more energy. Have you ever wished for a fun game where more people were engaged? Do you want a game that’s high energy? Reverse […]
Charades—Improving Your Nonverbal Communication Goals: Guess what the actor is doing without the actor saying a word. This classic game plays well in virtual meetings. A charade was a form of literary riddle popularized in France in the eighteenth century. This acting game is a […]
If you want help designing, producing and MC’ing your virtual conference, just fill out the form:
A to Z—Teaching Why Your Meeting Needs a System Goals: Chat from A to Z as fast as possible. Show that high-performing meetings must have a system like Air Traffic Control. Show how easy it is to step on each other’s toes in virtual meetings. […]
This is a great initiative to increase verbal communication. It’s especially useful when some attendees are unable to turn on their cameras since it provides a way to engage them. Attendees will develop skills of asking questions to test assumptions of other attendees, which will […]
End your meeting on a high note. You want your attendees to have more energy after your meeting. Product teams did research on product demonstration meetings. They discovered that if you end your meeting on a high note, customers are more likely to buy your […]
Get productive with virtual tools. A virtual meeting is about getting work done. We all have to meet to get our job done. As the host, you need to value the time even more, because as soon as you log in, you start an invisible […]
Air traffic control. If two or more people talk at the same time, no one can hear. An engaging meeting is when you understand what is said. You can help by creating air traffic control. From physical to virtual hand raises or other types of […]
Good looks. If you want engagement, look good. Take a shower. Dress up. Frame your face. Clean up your background. Turn on your lights. Wear your company gear. Wear bright colors.1 Like Bruno Mars says, “If you want to show up, then show out.” Want […]
Never lead a meeting alone. If you want engagement, assign an attendee or someone you invite to a meeting a role in the meeting (after you have trained them). Roles include chat engagement, muting and unmuting, renaming, and security. Any or all of these roles […]
Engage and interact with every attendee. If you want engagement, engage! If you want your next virtual meeting to be engaging, then try different ways to engage your attendees. Greet all of your attendees as they arrive. Have every attendee check in. Ask your attendees […]
The Actors Fund created the COVID-19 Emergency Financial Assistanceprogram to help everyone involved with cinematic entertainment, such as musicians, editors, and sound mixers. They created a video from over 100 actors filmed in virtual meetings that became one of the most cinematic virtual meeting videos. […]
There are professionals who have been practicing technology and engagement for years. I am in awe of many of those pioneers in the technology and meeting professional industries. They have been experimenting and learning the best practices of what works and what doesn’t work. The […]
Have you heard a great speaker in a virtual meeting who sounded tiny or distant? Have you logged in, excited for a meeting, but struggled to hear the presenter even though you turned up your audio? Have you ever logged off of a webinar because […]
Have you ever had a virtual meeting attendee interrupted by a dog barking, a child walking in the room, a lawnmower, or the neighbor’s supercharged car? It is disturbing for your attendees or clients and it can also knock you off your planned presentation. Take […]
PowerPoint Karaoke—Improving Improvisation Goals: Learn how to improve your improvisation by presenting a PowerPoint slidedeck without ever seeing it. Have you ever had something not go as planned during your meeting? Do you wish you could handle that with ease? Then, practice your improvisation skills […]
Goals: Get attendees to realize that giving more information is better than just receiving for solving problems and collaborating. Five teammates work together to put five triangles together with a fixed set of rules. This is a classic team-building event called Broken Squares that is […]
Grid Unlock—How to Work Together to Solve Problems Goals: Get attendees to find their own way to work together and solve problems. Grid Unlock is a classic “Magic Squares” challenge updated for a virtual meeting. In a shared spreadsheet, attendees enter nine numbers until you […]
I’m John Chen, the CEO of Geoteaming, your expert on team building. On February 3rd, 2020, the GHCA or the Georgia Healthcare Association participated in a Geoteaming program. This program focused on networking and team building. After reviewing gigabytes of data, we learned that there […]
The Engaging Virtual Meetings facebook group is THE community of professionals who are passionate about making virtual meetings engaging. With members from around the world and from multiple professions, you can ask a question and get multiple answers quickly. In addition, the best practices from […]
Matching and mirroring operates on the principle that people like people who are like themselves. These are easy openers that only use video and can take 1–3 minutes. You can use just one or combine 2 to 10 of these openers. You can sequence the […]
Share iPhone/iPad You can share your iPhone or iPad screen. If you are showing an app, you can show exactly how it looks and works to your participants, which can help if your app only works on the iPhone or iPad. This can help in […]
One of the easiest ways to learn how to use Annotation is to play Pictionary. The organizer private chats a word to the drawer. The drawer proceeds to draw something to get the other participants to guess the drawn word in 60 seconds or less […]
One of the hidden keys to an engaging virtual meeting is security. Security includes the challenges of securing your meeting data, especially if it is confidential or sensitive to the phenomenon of Zoombombing, which is the unwanted intrusion into a videoconference call by an individual […]
One of the hidden keys to an engaging virtual meeting is security. Security includes the challenges of securing your meeting data, especially if it is confidential or sensitive to the phenomenon of Zoombombing, which is the unwanted intrusion into a videoconference call by an individual […]
This is a high-energy matching and mirroring opener. You or someone you choose can lead the first dance and every other attendee must follow. You can create a rule that when the song changes, you change to another leader. Make sure all the attendees know […]
The Participation Map When your meeting grows to more than 15 attendees or if you have amore complex meeting, such as a learning meeting, consider using a participation map. A participation map can help you recognize common patterns of problem meetings, such as one or […]
One of the most common problems on virtual meetings is when an attendee starts talking and they forget they are on mute. Video signs is a fast and easy way to communicate that can be used when other attendees are talking. Video signs are printed […]
THANK YOU for completing our form. As a gift, here are video signs you can use during your meetings. Click to download your PDF video signs. Click to download your video signs in an editable Word document. Get creative and make your own! If you […]