For public courses, please register with ICA:UK or another ICA worldwide.  To arrange an in-house course for your group, please contact me. For other courses, see ToP facilitation training.

Are you ready for more online working?  Learn and practice ways to make online events participatory, engaging and productive – 7 x2 hour sessions online plus homework

“A truly world class course. For anyone who wants to improve the outcomes from any online event or meeting they are organising, I would thoroughly recommend. Not only is the content superb, but all of the techniques are role modelled, so the sessions themselves are hugely engaging, informative and fun”

Suzanne Trew, Business Transformation & Innovation Consultant, Facilitator and Trainer

Who this course is for

This course is for anyone who is experiencing the growing demand for effective online meetings and who wishes to develop their skills as both facilitators and producers of online meetings and discussions.

Anyone who is leading virtual meetings, virtual training, or webinars in the private, public or voluntary sector including Project Managers, Team Leaders, Facilitators, Trainers, Coaches, Community Activists

Questions this course answers

“How can I continue to collaborate effectively online? How can I design and deliver interactive, engaging online events, allow people to exchange experience and knowledge, pay attention to issues of diversity, inclusion and power, produce compelling documentation, and reduce travel and venue costs as well?”

What you will gain

• Learn to lead engaging online meetings that elicit innovative thinking and creative problem-solving.
• Gain competency leading virtual meetings regardless of platform, and an introduction to the ToP Focused Conversation method
• Build your confidence as a virtual facilitator.
• Learn tools and techniques for eliciting participation, virtual meeting design, and five best practices.

Learning style

The course is divided into 7 sessions, held online one or two per week. Each session lasts for 2 hours. Download the Facilitating Virtual Events I Online 2020 course outline (pdf).

The course is delivered using Zoom but is intended to be ‘platform agnostic’. If people wish to run their practice sessions via a different platform, that would be encouraged.

Each group will be limited to 18 participants to ensure high levels of interaction and personal attention. Participants experience practical, hands-on learning:

• Practice – integrate learning by designing a virtual ToP Focused Conversation with a partner, and by practicing as facilitators and producers, with the rest of the class acting as participants.
• Feedback – receive peer and instructor feedback during practice sessions.
• Classroom – seven virtual sessions using Zoom.
• Assignments – some light exploratory ‘homework’ would be provided between sessions, e.g. setting up participants’ own Zoom preferences, researching icebreakers and energisers, comparing different documentation tools etc.
• Resources – we will provide an ‘asynchronous’ discussion forum (Basecamp) for posting of ‘homework’, uploading of session chat and recordings, and conducting between session discussions, as a way of deepening learning.

Assumptions and Requirements

• All participants should have a basic competence in Zoom
• The language of delivery will be English
• Each participant will be required to have their own account with an online platform (Zoom or another), so that they can practice setting up and running a meeting.
• Each participant will be requested to have their own headset with integrated microphone, or earbuds with microphone
• Each participant will be requested to join via a laptop/desktop rather than a tablet or phone

Your trainers

For this online course I am pleased to be working in partnership with a wide team of trainers, many of whom were involved in the design of this course originally and who bring extensive online knowledge and experience – view our profiles.  At least two of us will be involved in the delivery of each course, and every session.

See also about me, how I work and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together.