5 Recommended Tools for Running Virtual Workshops

By | 07/03/2021

I am going to share some of the tools and techniques I have used for running workshops and meetings virtually.  If like me you have been working from home for the last 12 months you may have found there are challenges to running workshops as it can seem more difficult than if everyone is in a room together.  However, I have found that the following tools have made it so much easier.  It has also created a level playing field for any colleagues spread over geographical locations because everyone has had to work in the same way.  It also has offered extra opportunities in increasing those that can be involved and interaction.  This article assumes you are already using a conference collaboration tool such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom.

Scenario 1 – Dealing with larger groups where interaction is required and feedback

Tool – Microsoft Teams or Zoom Breakout rooms

If you have a large group and want lots of feedback and interaction, then it can be a good idea to split up people into groups with a nominated facilitator in each.  You can then get the sub teams to play back their discussions afterwards with the larger group.

Getting started

If you are the organiser Microsoft Teams and Zoom both have the functionality to do this.  It is extremely easy to set up and enables you to create different virtual rooms, allocate participants to these rooms and be able to bring them back into one virtual room again when required.  You can get detailed instructions by searching for break out rooms functionality and whether you are using MS Teams or Zoom.

Scenario 2 – A webinar or training that needs controlled interaction on demand or to survey many participants at once.

Tool – Mentimeter

This enables you to create slides with interactive quizzes, polls, word clouds, Q&A’s etc.  Your audience can use their browser through their computer or phone to interact with your questions.  I was asked to use this recently for a webinar I did for the Project Management Institute.  Here is a link to it if you want to see some examples of the interaction you can use.  https://www.pmi.org.uk/events/webinar-library-current/1491-february-2021-best-practice-guidelines-and-templates-for-business-cases-by-helen-winter

Getting started

Register at https://www.mentimeter.com/

Select the “your presentations” option and create or open an existing presentation.  You can then add slides and choose the different slide types such as shown in the diagram below.   When presenting the slides by pressing the present button or the letter P a code will appear at the top of each slide.  Your audience can then go to menti.com and type in the code to interact with your presentation.

Scenario 3 – Interaction required in real time using virtual post it notes to generate ideas, create storyboards or for planning

Tool – Microsoft whiteboard

I had been looking for a tool that could generate the same affect as getting people to write on individual post it notes and stick them on the wall for organising into groups.  I wanted to play an interactive game to teach the concepts of story boards and iterative and incremental releases.  This tool was brilliant because it enabled the participants to stick their own post its with their individual activities written on them.  We were then able to organise them into groups horizontally to tell a story and vertically into priority order for releases.  This tool provides this flexibility and its quite fun seeing everyone being able to contribute.

Getting started

Go to https://whiteboard.microsoft.com/ through your browser.  I found it easier to ask everyone just to use the browser version.  Once you have created your new whiteboard you can share the link so that all recipients of the link can access and edit the same board.  You can then also select different pens to write on the whiteboard too.

 

Scenario 4 – Drawing out business process models or any standard visual model

Tool – Draw.io

This enables you to draw out BPMN process flows, Wireframes, UML, Mind maps, Flow charts etc.  Most symbols are available to drag and drop onto a drawing area.  Sharing your screen during the conference can enable everyone to contribute and see what is missing.  Afterwards the diagrams can be exported into pictures or pdf format to add to other documentation.

Getting started

Type draw.io in your web browser in private browser or incognito mode depending upon the browser you are using.  You might not need to use private browser mode but it has been a work around I have had to use to avoid an authentication error.

You will be asked where you want to save the diagrams to.  To save to your own drive or a shared project drive select “Device”.

You can then create or open an existing diagram from your drive.  You can then choose the type of diagram you want to draw and drag and drop the objects you want on to the diagram area.

 

Scenario 5 – Running an interactive planning session that multiple people can contribute to and where the tasks can be tracked to completion.

Tool – Microsoft planner

This is brilliant for planning out all the activities for a project and organising the tasks into buckets of work.  It also enables you to allocate team members and for them to use the tool afterwards to report on the tasks progress.  It will also send email reminders of the tasks allocated to a person until they update their actions.

Getting started

This comes with Microsoft Teams.  Create a team with those who you want to access the plan and then select the add a tab option.  This will then enable you to select “Tasks by Planner”.  This will then always be available as a tab in that Team.

Once this is set up you can then create new buckets horizontally and new tasks underneath each.  Each person who has access in the team can add their tasks and track them.  It is also possible to export this into excel or view charts to show workload capacity and progress.

Thoughts? Questions? Please share in the comments.

If you have found this article useful then you might like my book – The Business Analysis Handbook – Techniques and Questions for better Business Outcomes.  The book is available from www.koganpage.com and all major print and e-book retailers.

 

Author: Helen Winter

An Management Consultant responsible for structuring programmes, success criteria, mobilisation, management of scope, budget, timely delivery, benefits realisation and stakeholder satisfaction. Helen has led on large transformation programmes to execute delivery along with strategic business outcomes. Helen is also a global business author with publisher Kogan Page where her first book “The Business Analysis Handbook” was a finalist for 2 major industry awards. One was for contribution to project management literature with PMI and the other was the Specialist book category for the business books awards. She is an active member of the APM programme management group. She is currently involved in a focus group sharing examples of good programme management practice and is an established speaker for project management forums. In her free time, she loves sharing her knowledge on her blog BusinessBullet.co.uk which is followed by over 5000 visitors a month.

2 thoughts on “5 Recommended Tools for Running Virtual Workshops

  1. Tim

    Thanks for sharing these tools. It’s useful seeing how you used them.

    Reply
    1. Helen Winter Post author

      Thanks Tim. Glad you found it useful.

      Regards, Helen

      Reply

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