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Top Tips for Keeping Participants Engaged
Top Tips for Keeping Participants Engaged

How to keep participants engaged and host a high-energy, productive event

Updated over a week ago

Gatheround events are a hundred times better with engaged participants, and it all starts with the host! Here are 10 tips for hosting an incredible meeting on Gatheround:

  1. Welcome everyone by name by typing into the chat when they enter the room. People feel more comfortable when they know you are excited to see them.

  2. Set an icebreaker question. Choose from our preset questions or create a custom icebreaker question to set the tone for your event.

  3. Start with a music video or something interesting from YouTube. It creates a welcoming atmosphere for the event and it fills the time when everyone is waiting for stragglers to join before kicking things off.

  4. Embrace being the emcee of your event! Get on camera right at the start and frequently between the activities. Turning your camera on as people join and in between breakouts helps keep the event on track and puts everyone on the same page. Even when you’re off camera, consider typing questions and thoughts in the chat to engage the audience and direct the conversation.

  5. Encourage people to use reactions! Located to the right of the chat in the main event room, participants can react with love, wow, LOL, thanks, sad, or confused.

  6. Use Group Share. This feature enables people to share with the whole group in a way that’s easy to facilitate, safe and inclusive to participants, and fun for all.

  7. Pin speakers. Highlight key presenters by pinning them to the meeting to direct attention and ensure they don’t get lost in the mix. Pin by hovering over the upper right corner of the video and clicking on the pin icon.

  8. Run two activities simultaneously. Want to give your team five minutes to skim an agenda pre-read before you get started? Run a Reflection activity with a timer, while playing some mellow music on YouTube with activity pinning.

  9. Revisit previous activities. Want to go back and review the results of a previous poll or quiz? Revisit previous activities using the activity stack. Switch between activities by clicking on the stack icon in the right hand corner of the current activity.

  10. Collect feedback from your people. Add polls near the end of your Gatheround to get feedback from the group about the meeting. You can create your own custom polls to get specific about what you want to know.

  11. Remember the moment! End your Gatheround with a Photo Booth to create a lasting memory to share with your team.

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