Online meetings are cheaper (no room bookings, refreshments or itineraries to organise) and participants only have to travel as far as their nearest internet connection. Business, universities and training colleges all seem to have taken up the challenge of virtual training. So why don’t more small NGOs run meetings online? Run webinars for staff training?

Developing staff skills in virtual facilitation is a simple and small way that organisations can commit to dealing with climate change. But the attitude I’ve encountered is that Skype is not only second-best but needs to be avoided at all costs – it’s just easier to not involve people who should be at a meeting than to organise an internet hookup. It’s really, really not that hard to set up a Skype connection, or two, or three. Investing in good virtual facilitation skills is worthwhile in itself, but by (hopefully) building trust and shared experience between staff members working at a distance, it may even make face-to-face meetings, when they do occur, more productive and effective.

So how do you run a meeting when you’re not really there? Some ideas…

• A Virtual Meeting Best-Practice Checklist
• A great Rhizome post on Virtual Facilitation
• Some really useful suggestions for how to run a ‘virtual check-in’ at the beginning of a meeting