Hello everyone. My team and I need some help!

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In large organisations, when decisions are made about purchasing virtual platforms, they are often driven by the “back end” (the technical specification) more than the “front end” (what facilitators and leaders of events want/need to get the outcomes they seek).

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My team does a lot of virtual facilitation and hosting within a large system. Through the pandemic our session have got bigger, more complex and daring in their approach and with increasing level of interaction. We have started to make the case in our organisation for access to a wider set of platforms to work with. I have been trying to find a “taxonomy” which sets out different kinds of virtual events. This is to enable us to match the kinds of virtual events that my team is being asked to provide with the tech platforms that we have available. This is where I need your help.

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I haven’t been able to find such a taxonomy. I can find plenty that are written from the “back end” that contrast the tech specifications of different platforms but nothing that is written from the “front end” perspective of facilitators and leaders of meetings.

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The nearest I have been able to find is the “four bases” that Phil Hadridge of Idenk wrote from his research on learning from virtual meetings. So I used Phil’s framework as my starting point and created a draft taxonomy. Here is Phil’s paper:

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Here is my draft taxonomy:

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So can you:

• Let me know if such a taxonomy already exists and give me the link?
• Help me to improve this. I know that many of you are very experienced virtual facilitators and I would appreciate it if you were as challenging as you want to be.

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Here is a link to the taxonomy as a Googledoc:

Please feel free to change it. It doesn’t need to look beautiful, I can do that afterwards.

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I will share the finished version with the group.

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Thanks so much in advance.

Helen

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PS: if you want to see the kinds of things that my team and I do, find us on Twitter at @HelenBevan and @HorizonsNHS

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Hi gang; lurker here.?

One more for the mix. Yesterday I ran to compare various tools, including Kumu, Plectica, Flying Logic and TheBrain. I'm the world's of the latter,?with a single mind map I've been curating for 22+ years. Many of?you are in there. ( the video I?just pointed to.) Hope it adds some spice to the mix :)

All this is part of , which I invite anyone interested to join (there's a link halfway down the landing page).?

Cheers,
Jerry

On Fri, Jul 17, 2020 at 6:57 PM Luis Miranda <Intl.mediation@...> wrote:

Hi everyone,

These responses were nothing short of majestic. Lucas, Bev, and Chris, I appreciate the examples you've?provided on how you've used mural and iconography to do the sort of landscape analysis you were looking to do. In my case, I only gave them just under an hour to start getting their thoughts into the board,?but it was what I needed for my objective for this activity.??

While I've used mural before and love it, I prefer miro (and I have the license) it proved to be quite a hit.?Miro has these "apps" that allow you to insert and pretty seamlessly. Check those hyperlinks to learn more about them. These examples of some of the results we got, which display a group that were more image and power systems oriented, and another one that was icon-oriented and descriptive:

Just wanted to thank folks for responding so quickly, attentively, and just being willing to pitch in ideas. I hope this debrief email can contribute back a bit. It feels good to be connected to such a smart, supportive, and creative community like this one.

Have a good weekend!

Luis Miranda?(he, him, his) Cell:?+1 (801) 819-8581 Email:?intl.mediation@...

On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 3:47 AM Chris Collison <chris.collison@...> wrote:

Agree with Bev.

Mural is so good for collaborative visuals and makes a tremendous difference to the ebb and flow, extroversion/extroversion of an online event.? Not having to decipher and transcribe post-it notes afterwards is a real bonus too!

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I would add:

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• Have some fun!? As the Mural facilitator, you can summon people to follow your screen – which opens up a world of animation possibilities.? I represented our 2-day event as a roadmap and created a VW camper van with everyone on board, which we moved along the ‘route’.? Here’s a blog post about it:?
  
  
• Use Zoom breakouts as background ?audio channels whilst each break-out gathers around their part of the mural.? I usually create well-labelled flipcharts or cork boards (with the name of the break-out group) so that they know where to go.
  
  

• Arrange a pre-test for people.? If your time is constrained, or people’s time management is dubious, set up a simple mural flipchart and ask people to ‘check in’ by creating a post-it with their name on a few days before.? That makes it easy to chase anyone whose post-it is missing.? I have had the odd issue with government employees whose browsers are restricted such that they can’t create a post-it note.? With a bit of advanced notice, they can find a personal device to use instead.? Hide an ‘easter egg’ somewhere in a corner of the test mural so that they have to master navigation and zooming in and out.
  Depending on the nature of the group, you could have? a flipchart for ‘check-in’ post-its and a separate area for ‘paste a photo of you as a baby/child’ to set the scene for a great icebreaker!

?

Chris

?

?

From: <[email protected]> on behalf of Bev Wenger-Trayner <bev@...>
Reply-To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Date: Wednesday, 15 July 2020 at 10:27
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [f4c-response] Rich-picture mapping session online #facilitation #technology #mapping

?

Hi Luis

?

1. Has anyone managed to?pull off facilitating?a rich picture mapping activity online?? If so, how did?it go?

Yes, we do them using (see attached example where six people did a mapping exercise). It has worked really well (surpassing our expectations) in the three times we have done it.

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1. Any?tools, tricks, or tips would you?recommend to overcome the technology obstacles to conduct an activity that relies more on creativity and art?

?

Some things I think have contributed to it:

• Spend loads of time in setting it up. Every last detail counts

• Where possible, we have done a version of the mapping first with someone (or some people) from the group of participants (e.g. their lead or their coordinator). This person is then a great interlocutor who both gives us feedback on what s/he thinks might give challenges to the group in advance. And, most importantly, they are also great at communicating tips and tricks to the others based on their own experience. ??

• In particular, attention to facilitating anything related to navigating the space, finding things… e.g. personalized links from the agenda to their space on the Mural

• A sandbox where people can play and experiment in advance of the session - with a links to a videos on how to add content in Mural.

• Each person’s area has its own key - some icons, symbols and post-its that we have pre-chosen. They just have to drag and drop (or copy/paste) them into place. As people became more adventurous they start to look for their own. Related - people report that having a limited selection of icons (rather than the thousands offered by Mural) helped them to focus on their map

• Easy directions (see top left) on the mural for them to refer to while they are doing it. (Actually, I’m not sure how often people actually refer to these - and forget to ask).

• Spend the first 10-15 minutes of the session doing screen share to show people the basics

• We give people the option to do their map using paper and pen, insisting that the technology should not get in the way of what we are trying to achieve through doing this. People report finding it easier to experiment when they feel like the pressure to perform online isn’t there. i.e. simply knowing they can do it using pen and paper makes it easier to do it online!

(Related reasons why we like Mural for doing this kind of thing -?)

?

Bev

?

?

<image001.png>

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On Jul 15, 2020, at 04:08, Luis Miranda <Intl.mediation@...> wrote:

?

Hi folks,

I'm trying to conduct a rich picture mapping activity from the soft systems methodology as part of a multi-day process I'm facilitating solely online. One of the assets of the activity that I'm hoping to harvest is the process of people putting symbols and illustration into a larger map to convey divergent feelings and meanings beyond words.?The challenge I've found is that most whiteboards online?can be hard to draw on(unless you have an iPad or a Surface), so I've?experienced facilitators rely more on typing or posting pictures.? I'm a frequent Miro user.

1. Has anyone managed to?pull off facilitating a rich picture mapping activity online?? If so, how did it go?
2. Any?tools, tricks, or tips would you recommend to overcome the technology obstacles to conduct an activity that relies more on creativity and art?

I appreciate any comments in advance.? Thank you!

?

Luis Miranda?(he, him, his) Cell:?+1 (801) 819-8581 Email:?intl.mediation@...

?

On Jul 16, 2020, at 8:51 AM, Anna van der Heijden <avanderheijden@...> wrote:

Hi Laura, John,

We have done a lot of things with Zoom, and I have only participated in Remo as a participant. What is really nice about?Remo is that you can move yourself around and that it mimics?the feel of a conference where you can mix and mingle. But once you are at your table in a small group -- which is fun -- if you would be there for a long period of time the experience?in zoom breakout is better I think.? ?

In thinking of high-end, I wanted to mention that we had a good experience recently in upping the feel of the Zoom conference and changing it from a regular meeting by including a virtual opening act of live drawing accompanied by a live music performance. Just as an idea.

By the way, Remo offers trial runs so you can participate in a test event and see how it feels.?

Anna

On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 12:22 PM Laura Gramling <laura@...> wrote:

Thanks for the follow up notes!

On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 11:11 AM John Sechrest <sechrest@...> wrote:

If I made it sound not high end, then I miscommunicated.?

It will work well for single meetings that host up to 500 people (perhaps more, but I have not done that)

It has enough flexibility to create a good experience.?

It is designed around tables for chatting with a stage for presenting. So if you have 100 leaders, and they are going to be engaged with a panel or some kind of presentation, then it works great.?

If you are wanting to assign subgroups, or have subgroups (breakout rooms) that are more than 6 people, then it is not the right tool.

If you want it to have a whole day workshop that is the same room for 8 hours, it is not the right tool.

If you have a facilitated discussion that you pull people on to the stage and then off, and then walk through a broad set of discussions, which you then have mingle time in the middle, it works perfectly well.?

On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 7:28 AM Laura Gramling <laura@...> wrote:

Thanks John for the feedback on the platform.??

Sounds like a good option as you say that is better than Zoom but not for a high-end event.? The meeting I'm designing is for a top 100 leaders of a global company and this platform may not have that 'high-end experience' feel that we want to create.

I'll check out hopin that you also referenced.

On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 7:18 PM John Sechrest <sechrest@...> wrote:

I did 230 people in remo for my Seattle Angel Conference.?

Most people had never seen it before. So it was weird?for them coming in.?

But it was a "relief from zoom". That was our number one comment.?

It helps to do a bit of prep work. We did a mixer the night before, so many of the participants came in and did their fumbling at the mixer instead of at the big event.?

It automatically assigns you to a table, so it takes time to figure things out.?

And you come in with audio and video off.?

So they have to turn it on.?

Some small number of folks can't get their audio or video working.

It works best with chrome. You may have to have people restart their browser if it locks up. A Few people had that problem.

We set up a Support table where people could ask questions.?

In smaller groups, we wander to each table to coach them on how to use the tool.

On the big groups, we did a customer video to do the same thing.?

You do not have a mute button for people with bad audio. It only effects the local table, but it can be a problem. So you have to ask people to turn off audio sometimes.?

It has several interesting features including white boards, the ability to move around and the ability to call people to the stage.

Pricing is moving and is a bit expensive (to me).? I am at the Producer level to support long enough events with up to 500 people.?

A competitor is Airmeet, which is in beta.?

I am using remo for all my workshops at the moment to get mingling.?

I may fall back to another tool for the small groups and only use remo for the big events.?

There are tools that are much bigger than remo , aimed for multi-day conferences. Remo is in the middle between zoom on one end and hopin on the other end.?

On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 3:50 PM Laura Gramling <laura@...> wrote:

Hello community!

I'm looking to learn more about a virtual conference platform Remo.? ()

Has anyone used this platform for?a large group, top leaders meetings? pros? cons?

Thanks!

Laura

--?

Laura Gramling

President

+1 202 257 5528

laura@...

--?

JOHN SECHREST
Founder,?Seattle Angel Conference

TEL??(541) 250-0844? ??EMAIL??sechrest@...

?

@sechrest

--?

Laura Gramling

President

+1 202 257 5528

laura@...

--?

JOHN SECHREST
Founder,?Seattle Angel Conference

TEL??(541) 250-0844? ??EMAIL??sechrest@...

?

@sechrest

--?

Laura Gramling

President

+1 202 257 5528

laura@...

--?

Anna van der Heijden | Knowledge Manager Wildlife Practice |?WWF International |?E-mail: avanderheijden@... |?

This e-mail message and any attached files are confidential and may contain privileged information. If you are not the addressee of this e-mail, you may not copy, disclose, distribute or otherwise use it, or any part of it, in any form whatsoever. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and then delete this e-mail.

On Jul 16, 2020, at 8:51 AM, Anna van der Heijden <avanderheijden@...> wrote:

Hi Laura, John,

We have done a lot of things with Zoom, and I have only participated in Remo as a participant. What is really nice about?Remo is that you can move yourself around and that it mimics?the feel of a conference where you can mix and mingle. But once you are at your table in a small group -- which is fun -- if you would be there for a long period of time the experience?in zoom breakout is better I think.? ?

In thinking of high-end, I wanted to mention that we had a good experience recently in upping the feel of the Zoom conference and changing it from a regular meeting by including a virtual opening act of live drawing accompanied by a live music performance. Just as an idea.

By the way, Remo offers trial runs so you can participate in a test event and see how it feels.?

Anna

On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 12:22 PM Laura Gramling <laura@...> wrote:

Thanks for the follow up notes!

On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 11:11 AM John Sechrest <sechrest@...> wrote:

If I made it sound not high end, then I miscommunicated.?

It will work well for single meetings that host up to 500 people (perhaps more, but I have not done that)

It has enough flexibility to create a good experience.?

It is designed around tables for chatting with a stage for presenting. So if you have 100 leaders, and they are going to be engaged with a panel or some kind of presentation, then it works great.?

If you are wanting to assign subgroups, or have subgroups (breakout rooms) that are more than 6 people, then it is not the right tool.

If you want it to have a whole day workshop that is the same room for 8 hours, it is not the right tool.

If you have a facilitated discussion that you pull people on to the stage and then off, and then walk through a broad set of discussions, which you then have mingle time in the middle, it works perfectly well.?

On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 7:28 AM Laura Gramling <laura@...> wrote:

Thanks John for the feedback on the platform.??

Sounds like a good option as you say that is better than Zoom but not for a high-end event.? The meeting I'm designing is for a top 100 leaders of a global company and this platform may not have that 'high-end experience' feel that we want to create.

I'll check out hopin that you also referenced.

On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 7:18 PM John Sechrest <sechrest@...> wrote:

I did 230 people in remo for my Seattle Angel Conference.?

Most people had never seen it before. So it was weird?for them coming in.?

But it was a "relief from zoom". That was our number one comment.?

It helps to do a bit of prep work. We did a mixer the night before, so many of the participants came in and did their fumbling at the mixer instead of at the big event.?

It automatically assigns you to a table, so it takes time to figure things out.?

And you come in with audio and video off.?

So they have to turn it on.?

Some small number of folks can't get their audio or video working.

It works best with chrome. You may have to have people restart their browser if it locks up. A Few people had that problem.

We set up a Support table where people could ask questions.?

In smaller groups, we wander to each table to coach them on how to use the tool.

On the big groups, we did a customer video to do the same thing.?

You do not have a mute button for people with bad audio. It only effects the local table, but it can be a problem. So you have to ask people to turn off audio sometimes.?

It has several interesting features including white boards, the ability to move around and the ability to call people to the stage.

Pricing is moving and is a bit expensive (to me).? I am at the Producer level to support long enough events with up to 500 people.?

A competitor is Airmeet, which is in beta.?

I am using remo for all my workshops at the moment to get mingling.?

I may fall back to another tool for the small groups and only use remo for the big events.?

There are tools that are much bigger than remo , aimed for multi-day conferences. Remo is in the middle between zoom on one end and hopin on the other end.?

On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 3:50 PM Laura Gramling <laura@...> wrote:

Hello community!

I'm looking to learn more about a virtual conference platform Remo.? ()

Has anyone used this platform for?a large group, top leaders meetings? pros? cons?

Thanks!

Laura

--?

Laura Gramling

President

+1 202 257 5528

laura@...

--?

JOHN SECHREST
Founder,?Seattle Angel Conference

TEL??(541) 250-0844? ??EMAIL??sechrest@...

?

@sechrest

--?

Laura Gramling

President

+1 202 257 5528

laura@...

--?

JOHN SECHREST
Founder,?Seattle Angel Conference

TEL??(541) 250-0844? ??EMAIL??sechrest@...

?

@sechrest

--?

Laura Gramling

President

+1 202 257 5528

laura@...

--?

Anna van der Heijden | Knowledge Manager Wildlife Practice |?WWF International |?E-mail: avanderheijden@... |?

This e-mail message and any attached files are confidential and may contain privileged information. If you are not the addressee of this e-mail, you may not copy, disclose, distribute or otherwise use it, or any part of it, in any form whatsoever. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and then delete this e-mail.