7 Virtual Tools

An experiential coaching workshop to level up your toolkits for facilitating virtual meetings like a Pro.

Running an unforgettable virtual workshop requires a flexible toolkit. Are you skilled up in the latest tools for keeping participant’s attention? In this fun, fast-paced, hands-on class, you’ll upgrade your facilitation skills with a new array of tools. Our facilitators will help you get your hands-on various virtual facilitation tools and methods, teaching when to use them and how they work.

You’ll use the tools so you can incorporate these jedi techniques into everyday virtual meetings like a pro. You’ll end the workshop with a new toolbelt for facilitating workshops online and the confidence to approach it with renewed energy and optimism. It’s not just about a more expansive toolbox, but developing internal resources that you can draw on to be a master facilitator.

Date

August 14, 2020

Time

11am - 3pm CT​

Location

Live Online

Interested in hearing when this workshop will occur next?

Interested in a private cohort for your team?

What to expect

What to Expect

Facilitating effective meetings is hard enough in person. In a virtual context, it requires even more attention to detail. And it takes more than just being aware of the tools - you need to know the correct recipes for unique contexts. How do you keep all participants engaged during virtual meetings? It takes a pro-level toolkit and mindset to leave virtual meeting participants excited about their next virtual meeting. In this workshop, you will experiment with many tools to get the most out of your distributed participants.

What You'll Learn

Keeping virtual meeting participants engaged requires more than an agenda or facilitation experience. We will coach you how to leverage 7 new tools (and we are always updating them) to engage in participatory decision making so each participant feels like the work is getting done in the meeting. Lastly, we will show you how to capture feedback so that each member in the meeting is leveling up.

How You'll Learn

The class will be activity-based with facilitation simulations and collaborative sessions. You’ll have the chance to try new facilitation approaches and frameworks in a safe space. We won’t just talk at you — you’ll learn through doing, work with other participants, and get feedback. There will be plenty of time for Q&A, so you can learn from our experience running hundreds of workshops at some of the world’s largest enterprises.

Agenda

Deep Work Session 1

The 7 tools to foster creativity and capture virtual room intelligence

Deep Work Session 2

Why these virtual tools work

Deep Work Session 3

When to use them and potential combination recipes

Deep Work Session 4

Prepare for edge cases and level up with feedback like a pro

Who Should Attend

Professional Facilitators

Who want to hone their virtual facilitation craft.

Scrum Masters

Seeking to improve virtual planning, grooming, and retro sessions.

Design Thinkers

Looking to add new tools and concepts to your virtual tool belt .

Leaders

Coming to the realization that facilitated leadership in the virtual landscape is the future.

Key Takeaways

Methods that engage a distributed team

7 tools for becoming pro at virtual work

How to leverage digital artifacts as your center of gravity

How to be ready for a diversity of tech savviness in your group

This event has ended

Interested in hearing when this workshop will occur next?

Douglas Ferguson

Douglas is an entrepreneur and human-centered technologist with over 20 years of experience. He is president of Voltage Control, an Austin-based workshop agency that specializes in Design Sprints and innovation workshops. Prior to Voltage Control, Douglas held CTO positions at numerous Austin startups where he led product and engineering teams using agile, lean, and human-centered design principles. While CTO at Twyla, Douglas worked directly with Google Ventures running Design Sprints and now brings this experience and process to companies everywhere.

Douglas recently published Beyond the Prototype, which offers expert advice for people shifting from discovery projects to realization and launch. He is also the co-author of Start Within, How To Remix Anything, and Non-Obvious Guide to Fucking Awesome Meetings. Douglas is active in the Austin startup community where he serves on the board of several non-profits, mentors startups, and advises early-stage ventures. Douglas spends his free time patching up modular synthesizers, playing guitar, and taking photographs. He graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

John Fitch

John is an entrepreneur and business coach. He is Chief Product Officer of Voltage Control, where we prototypes tools to help people facilitate better meetings. He enjoys designing technology through unlearning and the generous act of sonder. Prior to Voltage Control, John was Entrepreneur in Residence at Animal Ventures where he advised Fortune 100 leadership on their prototyping practices and led distributed software teams at the intersection of machine learning, robotics, and decentralized computing. John also worked directly with Google Ventures running Design Sprints and now coaches organizations how to develop rapid prototyping practices within their culture.

John is a co-author to two books with Douglas Ferguson: How To Remix Anything and Non-Obvious Guide to Fucking Awesome Meetings. He is finishing his third book Time Off – a look at how modern society is burning us out, why time off and creativity will be a crucial component to the future of human work, and the solutions to help us all prioritize our “rest ethic.” John spends his leisure time farming, hosting dinner parties, and practicing Jiu Jitsu. He graduated from University of Texas at Austin and is a proud alumni of Seth Godin’s altMBA.
What People Are Saying

I realized my entire role is facilitation. I have to do a lot of lateral influencing. So I use these skills even if it is not a super-structured workshop. Our product team has micro meetings all the time, and these methods help us get the most of those moments. My team can lean on me to facilitate. You will redesign the way you have conversations. I can’t believe every college student doesn’t have to take a class like this. This is how you collaborate. It is the underpinning of the future of work.

Savannah C.

PRODUCT DESIGNER @ TAILWIND

Apply for a Diversity Scholarship

A key part of our mission is to support diverse facilitators from different methodologies, backgrounds, races, genders, sexual orientations, cultures, and ages. If you are a part of, or serve, a traditionally underrepresented group and feel that this scholarship would allow you to amplify this mission, please apply now.

Photo Disclaimer

Please note that photographs, video & audio recordings will be taken throughout this event. These will be used by Voltage Control for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and in social media, or in any third-party publication. Please contact us via email if you have any concerns or if you wish to be exempted from this activity.​

The Books

Bring Your Ideas to Life

Innovation can seem complex or reserved for the exceptional. But we believe innovation is for everyone. We’ve set out to illuminate a path for you to generate bold ideas, visualize and share them, overcome obstacles, and turn them into reality. Our books are equal parts guidebook and stories from years of experience helping companies adopt an innovation mindset and culture. They’re practical & actionable, so you can get started now. We hope they’ll help you on your journey to realizing your biggest, boldest ideas.