Over the last few years, we’ve all gotten a lot more comfortable online.

We mute when we’re supposed to, we are a lot more mindful about how to organise ourselves to get the most out of our time together, and many of us have relaxed into online conversations to move work forward.

Along the way, some people have been leaders in adapting online ‘meetings’ into much larger online experiences.

On this week’s podcast episode, I sit down with expert convener Sarah Allen, Director of the Mozilla Festival (“MozFest”), to talk about how she and her team made the switch to virtual in 2021 and how they’re evolving the 9,000+ person online event to meet the changing needs of their community.

We discuss bringing the magic and dynamism of MozFest into an online space, sustaining the energy and community that is nurtured and created there well beyond the last session, and why you should think twice about hosting a hybrid event.

If you are trying to build more spacious and engaging online experiences, or just make your conversations online better by learning from an expert, here are three important takeaways from my conversation with Sarah to consider.

1️. Be a speaker box, not an echo chamber

For Mozilla, MozFest is a moment to survey their community, hear new perspectives, and bring learnings back into the organisation. But this can’t happen if only staff and existing community members show up. Big convenings are an important moment to hear new perspectives and feel new energy.

Think about how your staff all-hands or external conference can be a platform for evolving conversations rather than the same conversation over and over again. Sarah and her team ask themselves who might be missing from MozFest and are intentional about inviting and spotlighting new participants with new perspectives and new energy.

2️. Ask participants what they want

It might seem like a no-brainer. We assume we already know what people want or need, or that we have to guess. Sarah not only asks what participants want from the festival but also takes it a step further: her team invites community members to co-design every element of MozFest.

But even if you’re not ready to manage this type of federated design, you can still find ways to involve participants through surveys or asking participants to take on different facilitation elements. Even small steps can lead to huge wins for design and engagement.

3️. Build a pathway, not just a meeting

During in-person events, the venue contains participants. There’s a registration desk, coffee lines, hallway chatter. But in remote events, you have to build the container for participants; otherwise, they’ll drop in for an hour session and then head back to their inboxes or their next meeting, never really stepping into a different mental space that opens up possibilities.

As you plan your own remote convenings, think about the participant journey before, during, and after the event to build and sustain momentum.

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Want to learn more about MozFest and get more ideas for how to build a remote experience people will remember?

Listen to the episode in full.