Hybrid and virtual meetings are now part of everyday collaborative work. They allow dispersed teams, communities of practice, networks, advisory groups and multi-actor processes to keep working together when meeting face to face is difficult — but designing for them well, especially when some people share a room and others join remotely, takes more than moving a meeting online.
Good hybrid and online meetings still rest on familiar facilitation principles: clear purpose, thoughtful design, appropriate technology, active participation and useful follow-up. What changes is the need to keep remote and in-person participants on an equal footing, and to recognise that large or highly interactive processes often work better as a sequence of shorter sessions, with time between for reflection, preparation and action.
This page brings together guidance on designing and facilitating virtual meetings, online workshops and distributed collaboration. It should be used alongside the related pages on Facilitation tools and techniques, Facilitation guides and frameworks and Managing virtual teams.
A guide to hybrid event planning and hybrid facilitation – SessionLab
A substantial, regularly updated guide to designing and facilitating sessions where some people share a location and others join remotely. It works through purpose, format choice, roles, agenda design and the practical adjustments hybrid settings require, treating meetings, workshops and events as variations on the same challenge. Useful for facilitators and process designers moving beyond ad hoc online meetings toward more deliberate hybrid design.
Best Practices for Facilitating Hybrid Meetings – University of Toronto
A clear, practice-oriented guide (also downloadable as a PDF) focused on the facilitation craft rather than the technology. It covers preparation, managing participation across in-person and remote groups, and the value of a dedicated remote co-facilitator to track online voices and keep the conversation balanced. A good accessible starting point for people building hybrid facilitation capability within their own teams or organisations.
Planning and Facilitating Hybrid Meetings – NOAA Digital Coast
A short, free handout that helps facilitators decide whether a hybrid format is the right choice in the first place, and how to design for it when it is. It distinguishes between meeting types that suit hybrid delivery and those better held fully onsite or fully online, and offers practical considerations for keeping remote and in-person participants equally engaged. Useful for anyone weighing format options before committing to a design.
A complete guide to running hybrid meetings – MURAL
This guide focuses on the particular challenges of hybrid meetings, where some people are in the room and others join remotely. It covers preparation, facilitation, participation, technology and shared digital workspaces. Useful for facilitators and team leaders designing meetings where remote participants need to be included as full participants rather than observers.
Hybrid Meeting Best Practices – University of Michigan
A concise practical guide to planning and running hybrid meetings. It covers preparation, room setup, agendas, participation, technology checks and follow-up. Useful as a straightforward checklist for teams and organisations trying to make everyday hybrid meetings more inclusive and effective.
10 Strategies for Virtual Meetings That Win
This article by Yael Zofi provides practical actions for improving communication, clarity and participation in virtual meetings. Although written before hybrid meetings became routine, it remains useful for teams thinking about meeting purpose, roles, engagement and follow-through in distributed work.
These resources sit alongside the main Facilitation hub, which provides a broader introduction to facilitation as a practice for supporting collaboration, learning and change. For wider facilitation processes and methods visit Facilitation guides and frameworks and Facilitation tools and techniques.
[* Photo: CanStock Photo / alphaspirit]