[Telework] I held an LT tournament online [Beyond study session #23]

My name is Kai Fujisawa, and I work in public relations and recruitment. I've finally gotten a new desk and chair, and I'm relieved from my back pain

So, how many weeks have you all been working from home?

A month has passed since the state of emergency was declared, and it has now been announced that it will be extended until the end of May, so it's finally time to start seriously preparing your work environment at home

This is my first experience working from home full-time, and I'm realizing that teleworking comes with a variety of obstacles, such as lack of concentration, feelings of loneliness, back pain, and swollen feet

However, I've also realized that home is the best place to write blogs and read and digest long pieces of text

This desire to share with others what I've experienced while working remotely began to well up within me, and I finally decided to hold a Beyond study group from home.

Home LT Conference ~Teach us the know-how of remote work!~ Beyond Study Group #23

Six distinguished speakers gathered in the LT slot to find out, "How is everyone working from home?"

1.  "A company briefing session held within an online game" by Kai Fujisawa, Beyond Co., Ltd.
2. "I was already OK with working remotely, but now that I'm no longer going out, I've learned something" - Norihisa Kuwano , monoAI technology Inc.
3. "Mr. Abe mentioned 'transformation.'" - Yuki Horikoshi, Mynet Co., Ltd.
4. "My mom has forgotten the cause of her stress. Can you help me think about it?" - Jun Otsuka, former of Supercell
5. "Important mindset for organizations working remotely" by Haruo Sato of B-Proud Co., Ltd.
6. "Gather in the WFH Forest. Week X of Reclusive Living" by Hiroki Morishima, Unity Technologies Japan LLC
7. "What's the difference between a Zoom drinking party and an online bar?" by Yohei Kato of Vampire Co., Ltd.

Most of the speakers were from Tokyo, and the event was an incredibly impressive lineup that would not have been possible had it not been online

Approximately 80 people attended the event, and various telework know-how was discussed

Click here for presentation materials

This time, I tried holding a Beyond study session online for the first time

• What makes this different from regular study sessions?
• Advantages and disadvantages
• Attitude of both organizers and participants

I have scribbled down my thoughts as a member of the management team, such as:

Hosting and chatter are essential for running the event

In a regular study group, a moderator is sufficient, but running an online event alone quite lonely .

It feels like you're just sitting at home talking to yourself forever

Therefore, the organizers need at least one person to "talk" and answer questions from the moderator

You might also consider dividing up roles, such as someone to pick up chat comments, someone to check the number of participants, someone to check the time, and someone to play background music

Online bookings have a lower cancellation rate

In past study sessions, around 30% of participants always canceled on the day or did not show up without contacting us

However, this time the number of participants was almost the same as the number of people who applied

I think the biggest advantage of online events is that you don't have to leave work and go to the venue, but can participate from home while still working .

Share a pre-survey to encourage participation

This time, the pre-survey included the question, "Please tell us about your telework know-how."

We compiled the collected responses into slides and shared them, making sure to make the online session as interactive as possible

When attending online classes, it's inevitable that participants will just sit and watch, and end up spacing out, or they can do whatever they want, like watching TV or looking at their smartphones, so the organizers need to be creative so that participants feel as if they are actually participating in a study group

Zoom has a "breakout room" function, so it may be possible to split into several people and do group work

It's difficult to keep up the tension when talking from home

When the time comes and it's time to start the study session, the excitement is extremely intense

The other day, I went to watch an online seminar hosted by someone else, and I found that regardless of the content, I more of what was being said by someone with a lively voice . (This may not be related to online.)

Therefore, it would be best to approach speaking with about five times the usual level of excitement

At this study session, Mr. Otsuka stood up and spoke, so I thought I would try to do the same next time

▲Otsuka performing stand-up

 

Participants' reactions are collected through chat

The biggest challenge with online study sessions is not knowing how participants will react

So, I started off by declaring, "Feel free to post in the chat!", and while I was on stage I picked up on small posts in the chat and used Zoom's "reaction" function to encourage applause and likes, so I spoke in a slightly different way than usual study sessions

Practice screen sharing

"Sharing my screen is difficult" is the number one common online issue

In fact, it took me a while to get used to it, even though I thought I was used to it

So be sure to share your screen and check the audio before you begin

Presentation materials should be interesting

Listening to people talk online is exhausting

If you keep looking at the same page of slides, you will gradually get bored and it will no longer sink in

have more pictures than usual and the transitions are quicker.

As a result, even though I only spoke for 20 minutes, the document ended up being 78 pages long

The trick to creating materials for online study sessions is to change the layout of each one to keep things fresh for viewers

I strongly recommend that you take more time than usual to prepare your materials

There are no social gatherings, so it's impossible to chat

Online study sessions are great because there's no cleaning up to do, but I feel a little lonely because we can't have a social gathering

Even if someone I know is participating, I can't easily talk to them and ask their thoughts

So, I once again realized that the purpose of actually gathering at a venue to hold an event is to "expand the community."

At social gatherings, we are able to make connections with others and hear about new events, so we are exploring whether we can create similar opportunities online as well

▲After the study session, we had an online celebration with family and friends (I fell asleep halfway through)

 

summary

Points to keep in mind during online study sessions

• Clear division of roles between MC and gag
• The story develops quickly and the materials don't bore the reader
• To make the event more interactive, both organizers and participants use chat

If you keep these three things in mind, I think you can hold an online event

Setting aside time to serve as a social gathering (such as a workshop in a breakout room) may help expand the community and make things even better

We will continue to work from home in May, but it is precisely at times like these that we want to take on new and interesting endeavors

We also plan to hold online study sessions, so we appreciate your continued support!

(Next I'll write about our internal networking event using Minecraft)