How to effectively organize and facilitate remote workshops

Before the COVID-19 crisis, Vladimir would run in-person public workshops using flipcharts. However, with remote work taking over, he had to find a different way of doing things. This is when he decided to call Klaxoon into play: Vladimir had already used Klaxoon internally at Schneider Electric and knew it would be the right tool to deliver his workshops remotely and facilitate events by sharing knowledge and fully engaging participants.

I definitely got solutions on how to organize and then deliver engaging workshops, online workshops, for this pandemic period. Vladimir Kelava, Agile Coach, Schneider Electric DMS NS

How to use the Klaxoon Board to conduct a virtual workshop

The Klaxoon Board is an easy-to-use online whiteboard allowing collaboration in a visual, infinite workspace, which can be accessed from any location and integrated with ready-to-use templates, i.e. collaborative methods, tables or patterns inspired by industry standards, agile methods and best practices from the Klaxoon community.

Among other sessions, Vladimir organizes a 4-hour Management 3.0 public workshop on the topic of “Delegation and Empowerment”, including approximately 10 participants. He uses one single board on which he prepares all the activities he needs for the workshop. In order to facilitate engagement and allow participants to better focus, he chooses to hide certain elements and gradually reveal them as they move along.

Using templates to facilitate your workshop

Vladimir uses some of the templates available in the Klaxoon library: each template comes with a preview, a general overview and step-by-step instructions on how to use it. This means that it can be easily implemented, customized and integrated with other standard practices even without any prior knowledge, thereby providing coaches with a tailor-made tool without having to create one from scratch, making workshops more effective and engaging.

The template library is a true source of inspiration as it provides Vladimir with new ideas for the organization of his workshops. Normally, he starts with a blank board, browsing through the templates and if he sees something he likes, he will just pick it and add it to his board.

I really like templates because they are really nice. They can give you some ideas and they can inspire you. Vladimir Kelava, Agile Coach, Schneider Electric DMS NS

For his Management 3.0 workshop, at the top center of the board, Vladimir creates a meeting agenda using the table from the Klaxoon Kanban template. The table includes three columns (to do, in progress, done): at the beginning of the workshop, each item is marked as “to do” and is then moved to the other columns accordingly, thereby helping Vladimir to monitor the participants’ progress.

Vladimir has always used icebreakers to open his workshops: for example, in this particular case, he uses the tree from the Team Mood template, which he just has to copy/paste onto the board. He combines this exercise with personal maps, which seem to be a good way of introducing participants: first he shares his own map (name, hobbies, goals, etc.) and then he asks the other participants to do the same.

Klaxoon also enables him to easily create his own templates and his own network: once he will have finished delivering the series of scheduled workshops, his plan is to post all his training sessions on his personal network, thereby sharing knowledge with other users.

Organizing teamwork with breakout sessions

During in-person workshops, Vladimir used to organize teamwork in breakout sessions. For this particular online workshop, Vladimir carries out group exercises in virtual breakout sessions using the videoconferencing tool of his choice: on the right-hand side of the board, Vladimir adds content to encourage participants to brainstorm and share ideas and opinions based on their own experience. Other group exercises are carried out on the left-hand side of the board using tables: participants are assigned a task and can add, remove or move ideas around the board.

Although they are split into several virtual rooms, participants are still working on the same board. After each activity, they carry out a debriefing session all together in one main virtual room.

Discover the benefits of organizing remote workshops with Klaxoon

With the COVID crisis and everyone having to work remotely, many people all over the world had to find new ways of organizing workshops and facilitating audience engagement. Vladimir used to carry out in-person workshops and had never organized any online event before the pandemic: this forced him to leave his comfort zone and adopt a new approach.

Vladimir has chosen Klaxoon for his virtual training sessions because he finds it easy to use and prepare, and because it can be simply combined with other standard practices. Furthermore, organizing remote workshops with Klaxoon enables him to involve participants from all over the world, as people can access the events from virtually anywhere they like. This format also enables him to broaden his training perspective, organizing workshops with 100 participants still using one single board.

Prepare your workshop in no time with easy-to-use, engaging tools

According to Vladimir, Klaxoon provides him with a complete suite of intuitive, fast-learning collaborative tools: all participants are able to use them without difficulty right from the start and in just a few minutes they have turned into real pros!

Vladimir has already prepared some PowerPoint slides for his previous training sessions and is able to import them as pictures and then use them with the player for his presentation, a feature that he and the other participants find particularly useful. This makes preparation really quick and easy.

If you have old pictures or slides that can be imported on the board, practically in 30 minutes you can finish all your preparation for the entire workshop. Vladimir Kelava, Agile Coach, Schneider Electric DMS NS

With Klaxoon, Vladimir is able to use one single board for all participants, even when working in groups: having all elements and activities in one place encourages them to share, prioritize and organize ideas visually, increasing focus and engagement. It also facilitates the coach’s preparation of the event, since he does not have to create any physical props to engage his audience, which is something he normally does for in-person events. The fact that participants do not need a license to be able to use Klaxoon during workshops is a real bonus.

Finding quick answers and support

Before using Klaxoon, Vladimir attended an introductory training course, a “quick guide” through all the Klaxoon tools, which he found very useful. He is impressed by the quality of Klaxoon Customer Success Team service: the members of the team are always helpful and motivating, and whenever he has any questions or encounters any problems, he receives quick, effective answers and solutions.

With Klaxoon, Vladimir feels that he has gained valuable knowledge of the organization of online workshops and he is therefore planning to continue using it to deliver remote workshops even after the pandemic.

Klaxoon helps you to change your way of working. If you are used to doing things with presentations and flipcharts and you now need to go on to online workshops, Klaxoon is definitely the right tool for you. […] Once you start using it, you are definitely not going to go to other online boards. Vladimir Kelava, Agile Coach, Schneider Electric DMS NS

Be like Vladimir: go remote with our easy-to-use collaborative solutions and make your online workshops even more engaging and productive!

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