I'm going to do that speaker thing nobody likes and ask you a question.

Think about the last virtual training you sat through. How many tabs did you have open?

Be honest. I'm guilty of it too. Camera off, "on mute," doing something else entirely. We all are.

That's the problem with most virtual sessions. They're built like a stage talk somebody pointed a camera at. And a stage talk on a laptop is a webinar, and nobody's ever had a webinar change their life.

How do you make a virtual workshop engaging?

The short answer: design it for the screen instead of shrinking an in person event onto one. Keep sessions short, ideally 60 to 90 minutes. Have people answer questions out loud every few minutes. Use small breakouts so nobody can hide. Spread the work over several sessions with something to try in between. And give people a reason to turn their camera on that isn't "please turn your cameras on."

Why virtual feels so draining

It's not just you. Stanford professor Jeremy Bailenson studied what people call "Zoom fatigue" and found four big causes. Close up eye contact that never lets up. Staring at your own face all day. Sitting frozen in one spot. And the extra brain work of reading people through a little box.

So a good virtual workshop has to fight all four. That means letting people move, giving them permission to hide self view, mixing in audio only moments, and not making anyone stare at a talking head for an hour straight.

7 ways to run a virtual workshop that doesn't feel like a webinar

1. Make it shorter than you think

Sixty to ninety minutes. If you need more time, add another session on another day. Three 75 minute sessions over three weeks will beat one four hour marathon every time.

2. Ask a question in the first two minutes

Not "Can everyone hear me?" A real one. Something people have to think about and answer. The first two minutes teach people whether this is a session they can multitask through.

3. Make people answer out loud

Typing in the chat is fine. Saying it out loud is different. When somebody says their answer in front of other people, they own it. It's the same reason I build every keynote around a question instead of a list of tips.

4. Use small breakouts, and give them one job

Two or three people per room. One question. A few minutes. Then bring them back and hear from a couple of groups. Breakouts with no clear job turn into awkward small talk and people checking their phones.

5. Give people something to do between sessions

This is where virtual can actually beat in person. If the sessions are spread out, people can try something on Tuesday and come back the next week and report what happened. That's how a habit starts.

6. Let people move

Tell them it's fine to stand, walk around during an audio only exercise, or turn off self view. Permission matters. Most people won't do it unless you say so.

7. End with one thing, not ten

The last five minutes should be each person naming the one thing they're going to do before the next session. Not a summary slide. Not a list of resources nobody opens.

What a virtual session with me looks like

Both of my keynotes, Transform Your Next 30 Days and The 1-Day Method, can be delivered virtually as a keynote or as a workshop series. The workshop version usually runs as a few shorter sessions so people can actually try things between them.

With The 1-Day Method, for example, people name their Essential 3, the three priorities that would make the day a win, and come back to the next session ready to talk about what actually happened. With Transform Your Next 30 Days, people look honestly at their last 30 days and pick the one thing they're going to change in the next 30.

Same questions as the stage version. Built for the screen. It's a good fit for remote and hybrid teams, and for organizations that want follow through without the travel budget.

FAQs

Q: How long should a virtual workshop be?
A: Most work best at 60 to 90 minutes per session. If you need more time, split it into a series across several days or weeks.

Q: How do you keep people engaged in a virtual session?
A: Ask real questions early, have people answer out loud, use small breakouts with one clear task, and give them something to try between sessions.

Q: Is a virtual keynote as good as in person?
A: It's different. In person is better for big room energy. Virtual can be better for follow through, because you can spread sessions out and check in on what people actually did.

Q: What causes Zoom fatigue?
A: Stanford research points to four causes: constant close up eye contact, seeing yourself on screen, not being able to move, and the extra effort of reading people through video.

Q: Does Antonio Neves offer virtual workshops?
A: Yes. Virtual keynotes, virtual workshop series, and group or one on one coaching.

Final Word

A virtual session can be the most forgettable hour of somebody's week or the one that actually changes their Monday. The difference is almost never the technology. It's whether anybody asked them something worth answering.

If your team is remote or spread out and you want something better than another webinar, let's talk.