ThemeTech & the online room
CardCard 52 of 63
Questions5 to explore
StepSet up the tech

Tools

Software used in & around the workshop

The tools you choose are not the backdrop to the session, they are the room itself, and choosing too many of them creates a session that nobody can follow.

Every tool a remote workshop uses is a new login, a new interface, and a new surface for things to go wrong. Participants can navigate two or three tools in a session without it feeling like a tech support exercise, but beyond that the tools start to compete with the content for attention.

The strongest remote sessions tend to use the fewest tools that get the job done: one platform for video, one space for shared work, one place for links and information. Choosing tools is a design decision, not an IT decision, and it should be made against the outcome you are after, not against a list of features.

Online, specificallyIn a physical room the tools are physical objects that everyone can see and touch at once; online each tool is a separate application that participants have to navigate to, log into, and stay oriented inside, so the overhead of tool-switching is a real cost to session energy.

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.

Start with the fewest possible

Good facilitators make a deliberate list of the tools the session truly requires and then cut anything that can be done inside a tool already on the list.

Standardise across the organisation

Where they have an organisational standard (a video platform, a whiteboard tool), they use it so participants do not need to learn something new for each session.

Test the full flow in advance

They walk through every tool transition in the session before the day, confirming that links work, that the tools open without requiring a new account, and that any prep work inside the tools is done.

Put all links in one place

They collect every tool link the session needs into a single place (the workshop dashboard, the invite email, or a slide) so participants can find what they need without asking.

Questions to plan around

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

What is the minimum set of tools this session actually needs?
Will participants need to create accounts for any of the tools, and have you given them time to do that before the session?
Have you tested every tool link and transition the session involves?
Is there a standard set of tools your organisation or client expects you to use?
What will you do if a participant cannot access a tool during the session?

What trips people up online

Introducing a new tool during the session, rather than in the welcome package, adds significant friction at the worst possible moment.
Facilitators often test tools on their own accounts where everything is pre-configured; participants starting from a blank login hit a different experience entirely.
The tool that does the most is not usually the right choice: a simple tool participants already know produces better output than a powerful one they are learning on the fly.