HOW TO RUN REMOTE WORKSHOPS

As we are now all getting used to a ‘new normal’ and remote way of working, webinars have become for many, a big part of their routine. With so many online presentations, whether you are the presenter or participant watching, we might find ourselves getting a little tired of them and what to do next for a subject matter, especially in the professional services sector.

It is important, with any digital marketing strategy to keep things moving and fresh. With face to face events unlikely to happen anytime soon, shaking up your online webinar to more of an interactive workshop can help to engage participants and keep the audience’s attention and energy level.

How do you create a remote workshop?

Zoom is a popular choice for video conferencing and easy to use. Zoom Breakout Rooms are ideal to create a workshop style. Breakout Rooms allow you to split your meeting into separate sessions for smaller group discussions and can bring those groups back together.

Firstly, you need to make sure Breakout Rooms are enabled. To do this you need to go to your account management, account settings and enable breakout rooms.

Breakout Rooms can be of any size and number. You will see the breakout feature on the bottom of the screen - only the host and co-host will see this. As the meeting host, you can group participants into separate sessions automatically or manually and can switch between sessions at any time.

This video from Zoom provides more useful information on how to create breakout rooms.  

Other features include:

• Pre assign delegates to a breakout room - by uploading an attendee list, you can assign delegates to a room before the workshop takes place.
• In-Meeting chat – this might helpful when you have a larger group and may not be able to hear from everyone. You can ask questions and delegates can ‘chat’ the answers back.
• Polls or Quick Surveys – polls can help break up your workshop and can be used as part of an overall discussion afterwards.

Workshops are a great way to engage and interact with your audience online. In the current climate, it is important to keep momentum going and connected to your audience with a range of virtual marketing initiatives.

Cal Partners is an award-winning digital marketing agency, experienced in managing online recordings, presentations, webinars and workshops for clients.