Besides knowledge transfer, an online meeting is also a means to inspire people and to get and keep your team involved. Most meetings now take place digitally, which shows that most people can still use some facilitation skills! 

I facilitate sessions and events at Welkom myself and am happy to help you with some useful tips to facilitate your meeting with more success and pleasure in the digital world! We too have learned and improved a lot this year, and above all experienced what tools, platforms and forms that do and do not work well!

Tip 1: Avoid blindfolds at meetings!
Good meetings ensure that team members feel enthusiastic and energetic and that they have a clear understanding of the company's goals and strategy. The trick is to make a meeting digitally interactive. An important tip here is also that not every problem needs to be solved with a meeting, so only plan it when it is really necessary.

Tip 2: Plan ahead and prepare well!
Get the right digital visual experience and the right tools to make it happen. Invite the right people and set a time that suits everyone, whether you work at home or on location.

Tip 3: Sort out the right tools and technique!
The meeting will not be a success anyway if you are unprepared and do not know which online meeting tools you can and will use. Make sure you have selected the right mix to express your agenda and that you have the basic knowledge to use it during your meeting. (Think of a virtual platform for the plenary, digital whiteboards like Miro, interactive tools like Mibo and SpatialChat).

Tip 4: Make it exciting and involve everyone!
Unfortunately, it is a fact that it is easy to zoom out during most meetings - and that also applies to digital meetings. Here are some tips to create a meeting environment where team members feel good and know what they are working on together.
The check-in question! This is a good way to start and give everyone an equal chance to talk and create an open environment. Also, ask team members/participants in advance to add something to the digital whiteboard, bring in agenda items, etc. so they don't have to express what they want to contribute in the moment.
Create moments of discussion! It is smart to allow moments of discussion to occur between agenda items. This makes the participants feel more connected and involved.
Wrap up & informal end! Conclude the meeting by doing a wrap up and then it's time for an important informal closing! (A great tool for this is Mibo, play some pool, beach volleyball or dance on a tropical island, in the forest or at the disco hall!) 

Team Welcome - Lidwien