[foxbarrington]

> They typically borrow the form and structure of an in-person conference without considering whether those still make sense online, and whether the goals of an online conference should even be the same as an in-person conference.

Been having a similar debate with a client about their (remote) company all hands. If it’s just going to be a few execs talking at the camera, it shouldn’t be a live group video call.

[navane]

A remote all hands should have the form of a twitch live streamer. The ceo in his pyamas on a desk with old coffee mugs reacting to content from their own intranet, chat flying by, tts. I'd watch that.

That's the proven format for a one-to-many conversation on this medium.

His underlings prepared some slides, he reacts to them blindly, live fact checking of chat questions.

[cholantesh]

The CEO must regularly yell at chat to keep with the traditional divorced dad/estranged kid dynamic at play on Twitch, though.

[phrotoma]

This is brilliant.

[rplnt]

All hands should be followed by Q&A, rare opportunity to have execs together so the right one can answer. And it makes sense to listen live to know what (not) to ask.

What you are describing could be just an email.

[tazjin]

Ultimately the Q&A will become a reading of pre-approved questions though, in which case you could also have just recorded it.

[nmadden]

Have you ever attended an all hands that couldn’t have been an email?

[Suppafly]

My company does those periodically, but they always ignore the interesting questions or claim to need to 'take it offline' for further research.

[barbazoo]

I had the same thought. Ours usually end in a Q&A and I wouldn't want to miss that.

[bawolff]

On the bright side, at least you can turn off your canera and do something else if its on zoom. Hard to do that without getting fired in person.

[veunes]

The essence of virtual gatherings should prioritize interaction and engagement, which can get lost in a traditional lecture-style setup.