LEARNINGS FROM MY FIRST ONLINE EVENT

For the past two years I have been delivering free workshops in my city semi-monthly and I wanted to continue offering them the opportunity to practice during these interesting times. With all local events cancelled I decided to offer my first online workshop.

In preparing for the online event I only had to make some minor tweaks to how I prepare for face to face events. For example, rather than packing my projector into my car I needed to reboot my computer and disconnect other devices from the wifi. Rather than going to the print shop to pick up my feedback forms and handouts I created a feedback form and handouts that could be delivered digitally.

The day before the event I tested the software with some friends and I am glad I did. There were quite a few buttons that I was not familiar with and I began thinking of strategies I could use to maintain group rapport while keeping my eyes on the chat box, the slide deck, as well as the faces of the participants (during the workshop I found this more challenging than expected and received feedback to keep more eye contact with the camera lens).