Encouraging different participation styles

Providing different ways to engage at an event opens up opportunities for richer and more diverse conversations. We want to make sure as many different people as possible, especially marginalized folks, feel comfortable having their voices heard.

For instance, people who may not be comfortable with public speaking may be happier writing comments and questions in the chat during an online event, or submitting them on a piece of paper at an in-person event.

For some online events, we encourage people to turn on their cameras and mics to ask their questions if they feel comfortable, to integrate some of that in-person feeling. At others, we close down the video, mic and/or chat functions entirely to focus the attention on the speakers and guide people to a moderated Q&A section.

You can also consider giving people the option to submit questions for speakers in advance, via a platform like Slido, or a question on your registration form. That way, even if someone is unable to attend live, they can still feel a sense of participation in the interactive portions and the ability to make their voices heard.

Digital and physical collaborative “jam boards” give people the chance to respond to guiding questions and other participants’ answers to them. These tools are incredibly useful for taking in public feedback and reporting out on it. One such tool we have used is Padlet.