neXtworking Recap: Making the Most of Our Virtual Meetings

It would be an understatement to say that the Coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we work, but the savviest have been able to see the opportunity to innovate during the turmoil.  In our last neXtworking session, we were fortunate to have neXtworker, Laurie Peterson, share some insights on how to run engaging virtual events when in-person sessions are impossible. 

Laurie is fresh out of a training course that helped translate large events, like conferences and seminars, into online events that still create engaging and impactful moments despite not having the same social energy.  Laurie’s presentation, a question and answer Jeopardy-style game, brought out the competition in the rest of us participants while we learned some of the key aspects of running virtual seminars: planning is key, short and focused sessions, and make sure your digital platform is the right one for you and your audience.

The session was enlightening for all of us who attended, as we were able to identify the best practices of virtual events and explore new ways to bring these solutions to our clients. Even with clients that may be a little more risk-averse when using technology, especially video conferencing, the group identified opportunities using existing products within the client space to bring more value and collaboration in our time of social distancing.  As with many changes we see across society, we believe that the best practices and innovations in our virtual meetings will have lasting impacts beyond the coronavirus. 

We want to especially thank Laurie for taking the time to put the materials together and inspiring us to improve our virtual meetings! Our October neXtworking session will continue to put these digital meeting principles to use, as we have a virtual chocolate tasting scheduled to be guided by our very own Justin Smith—a former chocolate maker.  Stay tuned for details!