A CALRG manifesto for online meetings

It has been one year since we last have in-person meetings. Although most of us might be missing the ‘physical touch’ of conferences, seminars and meetings, we have also been able to adapt and utilize technology to come up with new ways of online meetings. It is not a replacement of in-person meeting, but an innovative development of meeting!

On 11 March, Rebecca from IET gathered us together to share our experiences in  online meetings, and what we envision as a good online meeting. Here are the contributions from some of the participants shared with us.

An image captured from padlet which contains notes produced by the participants. The notes are replicated below the image in text.

The notes on the image are:

  • Everybody should be welcomed into the room
  • Allow being open for moments of surprise!
  • Get participants to engage actively – become more interactive and using poll function more often
  • Regular breaks allowing for headspace and time to refresh
  • Define the difference between content and curation to help attendees recall the sessions
  • Shorter online meetings to keep attention levels an optimum
  • With Online, the content is more easily curated as it is stored in an online space
  • less formal! agreement that for some you can do other things and not need to stare at the screen
  • Find a way to build in serendipity to your relationships
  • Use physical gestures to show agreement, can’t hear etc. Develop a simple shared language as a group
  • Engage physical attention as well as mental attention
  • Shorter online meetings to keep attention levels an optimum
  • Regular breaks allowing for headspace and time to refresh
  • Let participants know when it’s acceptable to switch on/off camera
  • Comfort breaks!
  • Make the most of distributed participants
  • Define the difference between content and curation to help attendees recall the sessions – bring in experts from abroad
  • Use the power of music
  • Try a quiz format
  • Help the social and professional challenge to make a buddy
  • Be flexible as a participant or as an organiser when things don’t go as designed
  • Is multitasking actually possible? Should it be encouraged/discouraged?
  • Find a way to build in serendipity to your relationships
  • With Online, the content is more easily curated as it is stored in an online space
  • Icebreakers, activities that are a bit wild so there is licence to fail, not to be ‘academic’
  • However warm-up activities can be deeply stressful if asked to do things out of normal comfort zone!
  • Being able to move around