Agile retrospective is made easier with the help of a remote meeting software.
Today we’ll be creating an extremely engaging and easy-to-facilitate remote meeting using a great tool called Sessions.us
Sessions has reached out to me to see if their tool can be useful for you, my audience.
I was very pleased with what I found on their website and I had a lot of fun trying it out, playing with different features, and planning a workshop with it.
And today I’ll show you how to create an engaging webinar that you can use in a meetup or your community of practice.
Remote meeting software
It also integrates with Miro, so it was an automatic +1 for me.
Not only that, it actually integrates with all of the most popular platforms to run interactive online sessions like Slido, Mentimeter, Pitch, Canva, Figma, Google Docs….
Sessions also has a couple of interactive tools of their own.
Let’s see what we’ve got here.
I’m not going to bore you with the usual how to create your account and pricing as you can check it out on your own. But what I will say is that they have a generous free plan.
Instead, let’s get to work and create a webinar.
Remote meeting software free plan
So what separates Sessions from other tools is that it allows you to create and follow an agenda using various tools at the same time and without the need to switch out to a different screen, or even just having to share your sceen.
The tool does everything for you, you just need to get ready.
Agile Retrospectives with Sessions
And to get ready, the first thing we need to do it to create an agenda that you can do under the “Agenda” tab in the left-hand side menu.
As you can see I was trying out the tool for my Introduction to Scrum workshop.
But for this video I decided to re-create my Retrospectives That Matter webinar because it’s a perfect example of where this tool really shines.
If you’ve never been to my Retrospective That Matter webinar – then it’s your lucky day!
First, let’s actually go over the webinar to see what it looks like from the facilitator and from participant point of view.
We start with introductions where nothing is being shared yet, just the main facilitators and presenters saying Hi and introducting the topic of the day.
The next agenda item that makes a lot of sense at the beginning of a meetup like this is a quick Impromptu Networking exercise – just an opportunity for people to get to know each other is a more personal setting.
So we’ll use the breakout rooms. Don’t we love our breakout rooms.
And I’ll also look at it from the point of view of a participant.
So I’ll use an incognito tab and connect to the meeting.
Next we have a presentation part. Here I have uploaded my presentation. As a facilitator I choose when we go to the next slide. And we can also add a timer here – we know I love to talk non stop.
As you can see from the point of view of the participant, I can see the slides all in the same window.
A step-by-step facilitation guide and templates for virtual delivery.
This is a facilitation guide for running a retrospective technique “Structured Brainstorming” with a Miro template.
Sessions Miro Integration
Ok, next is my favorite part – we are going to use Miro!
In this part of the workshop I want the participants to write their ideas on sticky notes.
I remember when I ran this webinar a couple of years ago it was a real pain to get everyone to participate because they had to click a link and open up another tab in their browser so I had very low participation. And it was difficult for me to manage.
But here I can just add my Miro board. I don’t need to share the link anywhere so my participants won’t be lurking around my board after the webinar.
As you can see here I have a Miro board added with the space to collect sticky notes and the question.
And from the point of view of the participant – I’m still in the same browser window – I don’t need to click anywhere to participate, it’s all right here. Super easy!
Since it’s right here I’ll add a few ideas.
Great. So one other cool thing I decided to add here is a YouTube video showing a retrospective as an example.
I’ve never done it before in my webinars or workshops because of how difficult it is to include a video. If I put it on my computer, the sound is all jumbled up, plus the connection issues add a lag.
But with Sessions it’s all integrated in one place and everyone is on the same page.
You can also add videos from Vimeo, btw.
And the last thing we’ll do the key takeaways exercise. Just giving the participants a couple of minutes to think about what they learned in this webinar and write it down.
It’s also an opportunity for me to collect feedback.
And we can show the answers to everyone.
I can hide the answers or make them anonymous if I want, but for this exercise it’s great to share them instead.
Efficient online meetings
What do you think?
That’s all I wanted to show in this video, to walk you through this tool and to show how you can use it for efficient online meetings.
More specifically, I think that can be absolutely amazing for meetup webinars, for online conferences, and for community of practice events.
With Sessions you can create much more engaging and remote meetings that are very easy to follow and don’t require your participants to jump from window to window.
Just that is a game-changer.
And then the fact that it integrates with so many different tools and creates a seamless experience. Just a wow!
Should I do a webinar for you using this tool? What do you think?
Share in the comments below.
Once again, thank you Sessions for sponsoring this blog
I’m glad that I got to discover this tool thanks to this partnership.
Your First Retrospective: Facilitation Guide
Learn how to facilitate your first retrospective with this step-by-step guide that also teaches you the essentials of retrospectives and gives you actionable tips on how to address common challenges.
Don’t forget you can earn Gummy Bears when getting Scrum and Agile resources at my store. And Gummy Bears get you discounts on future purchases!
