Our most recent Digital Network event was memorable for two things:
- the first virtual network was the biggest yet, but the REMO software enabled us to herd our 92 attendees with ease,
- our vision for Dorset in the future included the powerful image of cows that text.
The network has developed considerably since we started it in 2017. One of the changes we have made is we no longer call it a ‘digital’ network; instead we found that publicising the event by the topic opens it up to the widest possible audience. This has doubled the amount of attendees and attracted as many residents and businesses as colleagues from our own and other public sector organisations to the meetings.
Our network meeting was due in May but at that point we were in the midst of our COVID19 response and we felt it wasn’t the right time. We needed to think about how the network could work in a virtual environment; although it’s about raising digital awareness we didn’t’ want it be purely presentation in style. People tell us the most valuable part of the network is the time they spend making contacts and sharing knowledge with a range of different people, so we considered the best way to enable this.
Digital Leaders’ week in June used technology that demonstrated virtual networking was possible and this caught our attention. Around the same time Andy Sandford from Lean & Agile approached me to see if I would participate in a South West Event he was hosting using REMO, the same technology Digital Leaders had used.
At Dorset Council we use MS Teams which has enabled us to connect and collaborate as a workforce and continue council meetings during COVID19. We use Teams Meetings, Live Events and OBS Studio functionality to do this. We are using Teams channels and are exploring break out rooms to enable group work during workshops; MS Teams is improving all the time responding to user needs. What MS Teams hasn’t supported so far is:
- that fluid networking when you have a large number of attendees, where people can roam around and change easily the groups they are working with,
- delivery of conference type events where you have multiple streams running at the same time
This is the current gap that REMO can fill. This month’s network was kindly hosted by Andy using REMO as a trial for us. It seemed appropriate to have our 8th networks theme as ‘Dorset Reloaded’. We looked back at what we’ve achieved in the last 12 months since the kick off event for Dorset’s Digital Future and considered recent worldwide events.
We had 92 people attend and REMO was new to most people but they all navigated happily between the sessions and the separate discussion tables. We heard from Alex Smith and Matt Prosser about the impact COVID19 has had on businesses and public services, and Paul Febvre from the Satellite Applications Catapult talked to us about 5G technology including the potential for agritech – and those cows that text!
The recordings from the event will be published on YouTube when ready. There was lots of discussion and we have captured the latest thinking to continue to influence our work and priorities for Dorset’s Digital future.
What did we learn about using REMO:
- Make clear in the invite how entry to the platform works versus a normal presentation style event
- It doesn’t work on mobile phones and best works on chrome (other browsers are available)
- As part of the platform introduction we should have included an icebreaker to get people to understand how they could hop about tables
- We didn’t take up the offer of naming tables and we should have done that, there are other table layouts that can be explored
- A handful of people didn’t make it onto the platform due to technical problems or had sound issues, perhaps we should have offered an opportunity the day before for a coffee & test session
- Turn off the automatic email that the meeting has started as people joined very early when we were intending just to open for speakers
What worked well:
- Allowing 15 mins for an intro and overview of the platform at the start
- Starting with the icebreaker to get people familiar with chat
- Breaking the time up into smaller chunks – 15 min presentation, 15 min panel discussion, 30 min network/discussion on tables, 15 mins to deal with Q&A
- We had good attendance even though the network was virtual
- People valued the table discussion
- We put our Dorset’s Digital Future image and 3 questions on each table whiteboard to provoke discussion and that worked well
- Having a single host throughout the event for continuity in the virtual world, normally we split the hosting up amongst the team
- Having Andy there to help us make the most of REMO and give us confidence using throughout
Attendees commented about their experience:
‘this platform is really impressive and a great idea for networking events’
‘thank you everyone – great first experience of this technology’
‘this meeting is excellent’
After the success, we are thinking about using REMO during the October Digital Leaders week for our ‘Festival of the Future’.
Watch out for the podcast in September which will carry on the conversation.
Lisa Trickey – Service Manager Digital Strategy & Design
