Volcanic ash enables virtual IAF...

Having been asked to facilitate an observed (goldfish bowl) keynote workshop on ‘The Future of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) at the Chicago 2010 North American IAF conference, Gary’s plans, and session, were suddenly in disarray due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland which put paid to flying to the USA!

With a few days to go before the session and no let up on the volcanic ash cloud, Gary along with the conference design team decided that as leaders in the field of facilitation, the IAF should be doing something different and so it was decided that Gary’s keynote workshop would be run virtually with facilitation support from a fellow IAF colleague and friend, Nadine Bell, who would be in the room in Chicago.

So come the day, 16 participants and 12 observers in a hotel conference room in Chicago, Nadine Bell co-Facilitator in Chicago, a five hour time difference and Gary in his office at the bottom of his garden back in the UK, the workshop took place.

Having chosen to do this over Skype and Skype video calling, which all stayed up and connected, with the fantastic help of Nadine Bell in Chicago, a web cam, frantic note taking on post-its stuck up around Gary’s office and a webcam in the room in Chicago, 3.5 hours later virtual facilitation workshop completed, session went really well and feedback very positive.

Now to find more ‘virtual opportunities’ and good online tools and software to support it!