ThemeDesign the session
CardCard 17 of 63
Questions5 to explore

Location Model

All in-person, remote or hybrid

Whether everyone is remote, everyone is in the room, or the group is split across both, the location model shapes nearly every facilitation decision you make.

Location model describes where people are when the session happens: all joining from separate locations (fully remote), all sharing one physical space (in-person), or some in a room while others dial in from elsewhere (hybrid). Each model carries a different set of challenges and possibilities.

Hybrid is the hardest of the three. The people in the room have a shared social experience; the people online are watching a screen. Without deliberate design, the room wins and the remote participants become observers. Treating hybrid as simply 'some people online' almost always fails.

Online, specificallyOnline and hybrid sessions require a deliberate choice about tools, camera placement, and participation design that an in-person session can skip entirely.

In a remote session

The same building block as it plays out online: how experienced facilitators tend to handle it when the room is a screen. Illustrations to react to, not rules to follow.

Name it early

Good facilitators state the location model in the first invite and the opening of the session. Everyone knowing whether they are in a fully remote or hybrid room sets expectations before the call even starts.

Hybrid gets its own rules

In hybrid sessions they treat remote participants as the primary audience: camera pointed at the room, a dedicated remote voice (someone who flags when online people want to speak), and activities designed so no one needs to be physically present to participate fully.

Fully remote is the clean option

When the group has a choice, experienced facilitators often nudge toward fully remote over hybrid, because the equity of everyone being on their own screen is easier to manage than the asymmetry of a split room.

Test the setup in advance

They always confirm which model applies before the day, and run a short tech check to confirm that the tools and camera arrangement actually work for that model.

Questions to plan around

Use these on your own or in a group. There are no right answers, only better conversations.

Is everyone joining remotely, or will some people be in a shared room together?
If hybrid, what will the experience be like for the people who are not in the room?
Have you designed activities that work equally well regardless of where someone is sitting?
Who is responsible for making sure remote participants can be seen and heard in a hybrid setup?
Does everyone know the location model before the session starts?

What trips people up online

Hybrid sessions can feel fully remote to the facilitator but deeply in-person to the room, creating two very different participant experiences at once.
A single person joining remotely into an otherwise in-person session is the hardest case: they will almost always feel like an afterthought unless you design explicitly for them.
Assuming everyone is on their own screen when part of the group is sharing a room leads to broken participation: screen-sharing prompts and chat-based activities exclude the room.