Five Tips for Virtual Meetings

A guide by RMI providing five strategic tips for transitioning in-person meetings to virtual formats to maintain effectiveness, collaboration, and human connection during the transition to low-carbon energy work.

• Facilitators should not expect virtual events to mirror in-person ones and should instead leverage digital tools to meet group needs. Recommended tools include virtual white boards for drawing, shared spreadsheets used as digital post-it notes, and chat functions to capture ideas and save time.
• Effective virtual planning requires adjusting timing assumptions because presentations often feel slower, while activities like voting or breakout groups happen faster. The author suggests testing technology with participants in optional sessions and employing additional facilitators to handle technical support and chat monitoring.
• To ensure frictionless participation and reduce hierarchy, facilitators should assess participants' technical limitations (such as internet speed and camera access) beforehand. Strategies to increase inclusivity include using check-in questions, mixing participation modes (written vs. verbal), and limiting breakout groups to a maximum of 4 to 5 people to encourage openness.
• Reducing distractions in virtual settings involves making meetings valuable through pre-meeting need assessment interviews and establishing clear norms on how participants should contribute. Tactical advice includes recommending full-screen mode, disabling notifications, and allowing physical fidgeting (e.g., knitting or coloring) to prevent email checking.
• Virtual meetings can foster intimacy and joy by ritualizing events, scheduling dedicated non-work socialization time, and embracing the domestic environment by welcoming pets, children, and personal items into the interaction.

APA

RMI (2020). Five Tips for Virtual Meetings. https://rmi.org/resources/five-tips-for-virtual-meetings/

Chicago

RMI. Five Tips for Virtual Meetings. 2020. https://rmi.org/resources/five-tips-for-virtual-meetings/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Five Tips for Virtual Meetings |date=13 May 2020 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/five-tips-for-virtual-meetings/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2020five, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Five Tips for Virtual Meetings}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2020}, month = may, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/five-tips-for-virtual-meetings/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }