I've said it before, the successful companies will take some key learnings from the pandemic and make them an everyday part of their workforce. A lot of what workers were forced to do and learn was not great, but there are some good things we can use.
One is the use of a Producer for online meetings/presentations. Not every company adopted the use of these, but those that did found them invaluable. The role of the producer is essentially to handle all the non-discussion aspects of the meeting - technical issues, controlling slides and visuals, monitoring chat, etc. The best analogy is the note taker from a traditional in person meeting.
The role of the producer changes based on the company and situation. Defining the role and training multiple people to handle this role is important. Particularly with presentations, you want the speaker focusing on the content and listening, not trying to multi-task with all the other issues that are going on.
I've done some producing and have talked with several others who have produced as well. The universal message we get from the presenter is how much help it was to have a producer. Plus, it enables the discussion to go to a different level. For example, if a speaker references a book, the producer can put a link to that book from Amazon in the chat for people.
Consider using producers for sessions. If you want to explore the idea further, feel free to reach out to me and I can help you move the discussion forward.
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