Here are some things to think about when organising a Zoom event, whether seminar, training or conference. It’s not an exhaustive list, but I hope it serves as a thought starter.

Everyone who runs online events will have a different idea of how to do things – and every participant in an online meeting is an individual human with a slightly differing set of needs and a slightly different range of things that bother them and things that don’t.

Some of these things may feel trivial to some readers. But for many people they are essential.

ANNOUNCING YOUR EVENT

(1) Be clear about the nature of the event. Decide how much input you are expecting from participants, and be explicit about this.

This is especially if you will be inviting people to do role plays or other forms of experiential interaction. If you are planning a small group of less than 10 participants, and definitely if less than five, please be clear. Unless it is literally just you talking, small groups can turn into something much more intimate, where the participants are much more on show. They need to be able to make a choice on this before signing up.

Remember, this is a consent issue. Someone who is expecting to sit quietly making notes may not wish to bring their whole self to an unanticipated sharing session. And please state in advance if you will be requesting that people give long personal introductions at the start.

(2) Will a recording be made, and made available?

It’s really important to be clear on this.

(3) Be clear about attendance on the day versus purchasing a recording.

Be extra clear about this. I had to unexpectedly leave a training early one day but was still expected to pay for the recording if I wished to watch the rest of it. This isn’t okay.

(4) Stating a day of the week (as well as the date) is super helpful.

This may seem like a tiny thing, and responsibility for this likely lies with the booking system, but it’s helpful where possible.

(5) Be clear when announcing your event that you want to make it as accessible as possible.

If you do not specifically state that your event is accessible, people are likely to assume it isn’t. Invite people to contact you if they need something that you aren’t already offering.

(6) Be EXTRA CLEAR from the start on your advertising which platform you will be using, whether Zoom, Teams or anything else.

It’s very annoying to realise that the seminar you are about to join in literally 5 minutes is on a platform you never use. Sure, there may be a link, but see point (10) below. There may be reasons clicking on a link won’t work for some people, plus there is figuring out the privacy aspects of a new platform, such as blurring backgrounds and turning off the camera.

(6) CAMERAS!

This is the big one. Please state in advance whether and/or when you will expect people to have cameras on. I fully understand that in cases of confidentiality/security/safeguarding, it may be necessary for all cameras to be on in a Zoom meeting. In a training seminar or conference, however, not so much.

I sometimes get the impression (especially in the therapy world) that some online event organisers think it’s ‘not very nice’ for participants to attend without their cameras on. Attitudes can feel quite authoritarian and infantilising.

However, there are many reasons for someone to not want to have their camera on and be viewed by others, and they should not be pressured otherwise. For example:

• If someone is neurodivergent they may struggle with the sensory overload from knowing they are on show, or the pressure to be sitting still while on view.

• Lots of people cannot sit still in one place for a long time due to differences in learning style, focusing capacities, physical pain, or disability.

• For mobility, pain, fatigue reasons, they may be lying down or in bed.

• There may be others unavoidably passing through the room they are in who they don’t want to be seen, such as children.

• They may be driving a car while listening, or doing a household task they had no other time for, and don’t want to distract others.

(7) Breakout rooms

State in advance whether these will be happening at your event. Again, as with cameras, it’s best that participation in breakouts is voluntary rather than mandatory. You could offer the option of participants reflecting solo or taking a break. Not everyone feels at their best in that context.

And remind participants about the option to put NBR (No Breakout Room) in the chat to make the tech support people aware that they do not wish to participate.

(8) If you are going to be asking your participants to use particular group participation tools, such as polling tools etc, please warn them in your pre-meeting emails.

And if these tools are new to you too, please practice with them before using them in a session.

(9) Be clear on the level of confidentiality required, so that people can make arrangements in advance about where to be during the meeting.

In other words, will a shared working space be okay, or do they need a private room?

ON THE DAY OF YOUR EVENT

(10) In your pre-event emails, please provide the zoom number and password, and not just a link!

Everyone has different tech set ups at home, and there may be a number of reasons why clicking on a link is not going to work for some people. This may cause last minute stress while they try to contact you or shift the tech they are using, causing them to miss some of the meeting.

(11) Make sure the on-the-day emergency contact details are genuine ones that will reach you, the organiser, in real time.

If there’s an issue getting into the call, eg if the link isn’t working or anything else, please make sure that the contact email is a live one that will be seen by you.

(12) Accessibility in the meeting

• Please mute everyone as the meeting is starting and while any speaker is speaking. I know it can get chatty at the start when the host knows some of the participants, but it can leave a messy audio trail if you’re not on the case with this.

• Remind participants that if they are going to move around, to turn their cameras off so others don’t get motion sickness. This particularly applies when someone’s computer has the face following option switched on.

• Decide how you will all use the chat box and stick to it. Some meetings have a parallel conference going on in the chat which can be interesting, but is hellish for people who cannot focus on two things at once.

• Ask for permission before recording a meeting. The Zoom system has this built in. Others may not.

• Be very clear whether there will be closed captions, or interpreters of any kind.

• It’s best to enable captions, to allow a level playing field. Zoom instructions here:
  • Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an admin with the privilege to edit account settings.
  • In the navigation menu, click Account Management then Account Settings.
  • Click the Meeting tab.
  • Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Automated captions toggle to enable or disable it.
  • If a verification dialog appears, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.

• Be clear on whether custom backgrounds or blurring are allowed. They can create a strobing effect which is at best distracting and at worst may cause seizures in some people. (Sometimes a good old folding screen may be best.)

• Offer regular comfort breaks. People don’t want to miss things when running to the loo or putting the kettle on.

• Invite people to have pronouns in their screen name.

• Use content warnings. It is considerate to offer participants the choice of whether to stay or not during particular parts of the meeting.

• Slides: be clear from the start whether they will be available. Ask speakers to consider making them available in advance so that participants can read along with them in their own way.

AFTERCARE OF PARTICIPANTS

If there have been difficult topics with challenging content, make yourself or someone else available for a while after the meeting ends. It’s not good to leave people alone on their sofas in a state of shock. Ditto if something difficult has happened in the meeting and people need to process it.

Fully understanding accessibility is a work in progress and we can all miss things. It’s about making sure your event is open to as many people who will benefit from it as you can.

I hope this has been useful. This is not an exhaustive list and there will be many things that I have missed – if you have the time and capacity, please let me know.