Five Tips for Virtual Meetings

This guide outlines strategies for transitioning in-person meetings to virtual formats, emphasizing the need to adapt facilitation styles, prepare for technical challenges, and foster inclusive and joyful environments to maintain productivity and connection.

• Facilitators should not expect virtual events to mirror in-person ones and should instead leverage digital tools like virtual white boards, shared spreadsheets for note-taking, and chat functions to engage participants.
• Effective virtual preparation requires scrutinizing timing assumptions because virtual meetings move at a different pace, testing technology with participants beforehand, and potentially using additional facilitators to manage technical support and chat monitoring.
• To ensure frictionless participation and reduce hierarchy, facilitators should gauge participants' technical limitations, encourage video use, provide multiple modes of participation (such as written formats or small groups of 4 to 5 people), and use polls or hand gestures for quick input.
• Distractions can be minimized by making meetings valuable through pre-meeting need assessments, establishing clear participation norms, and suggesting tactical measures like full-screen mode or physical fidget toys to prevent email checking.
• Virtual meetings can foster deeper connections and joy by ritualizing events, scheduling non-work socialization time, and welcoming the authenticity of home environments, including the presence of children and pets.

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} }