A hybrid approach for AGMs and other meetings

As a network plying our trade across different localities, Consultants for Good members will definitely be facilitating hybrid meetings, because like me, I’m sure you don’t want everybody to travel wastefully, deepening our individual carbon footprints, killing the planet every time we’re facilitating an in-person session. The good news is that I’ve developed training courses that will help you learn how to run hybrid meetings effectively, says CforG member Duncan Wallace.

The even better news is that converting a training course into a hybrid version is only a little bit more difficult than the virtual shift we all had to take to convert our live in-person training courses to online training courses during the pandemic.

In fact, my research shows that training courses are going to be one of the easiest types of meetings to convert well to a hybrid format. In fact, this diagram shows the rankings of which types of meetings are easy (or not so easy) to convert to hybrid.

What’s absolutely central to our values as Consultants for Good is how we enable organisations to create vibrant membership in their organisations, an approach which factors in  the diversity of our society.  So when it comes to hybrid meetings, AGMs are going to be especially important.

This is an image of a future AGM, where you have members, you have the accountants, the lawyers, the Board, plus scope for discussion and voting, and the sharing of information about the counts and strategy – all happening during the hybrid AGM. In my hybrid meeting courses I’m supporting a membership system which does all of that AND offers the potential to include all types of people.

If you think about the whole of Scotland, charities will often have a wide geographical spread. That makes it difficult and costly to collect together in one physical place. So why not have a few physical places, all connected into one AGM? With hybrid, these possibilities start now.

Yet we all need to get confident, competent, and literate in how hybrid works, and my new training courses will support this transition.

You can start with a short 1 hour introduction, or there’s a more comprehensive six hour course on how to run hybrid meetings effectively.

I have set up a discount code (CfG22) for all Consultants for Good members that you can put into this website. When you enrol for the courses, you will get them 25% cheaper because you’re a member of Consultants for Good, and my introductory offer is valid until the end of August.

Course descriptions and discounted costs

1. Introduction to Hybrid Meetings is therefore only £15 per person, and that gives everyone a good understanding about what makes hybrid meetings work, and what makes them tricky. You can interact with this course at your own pace and it doesn’t take more than an hour.
2. How to Run Hybrid Meetings Effectively, is the more in depth course that gets learners to really think through the planning, setting up and the running (facilitation and chairing) of hybrid meetings. During that course we ask participants to plan and carry out a hybrid meeting.  This course is expected to take people 6 hours in their own time and pace.  You will get this course for only £97 per person.

On my website are lots of free videos, FAQ’s, articles and other materials that I have created to help everyone with this transition to a better future of better meetings with less travel.

Please also feel free to contact me for any collaboration around hybrid delivery..