Why Run a Live Exchange

Scenarios and Questions for Live Exchanges

Tips for Leading a Live Exchange

Why Run a Live Exchange? 

Events, meetings, and conferences should be an exciting and worthwhile opportunity to collaborate and tackle topics that matter to those attending and not feel like some unusual form of punishment. With a little help from your Thoughtexchange Standard license, you can access the diverse perspectives in your organization, be inclusive in gathering input (even from the silent majority) and make sure your event is everything your attendees are looking forward to.

Let’s dive into a few great use cases, complete with questions you can use to keep the ball rolling for your next event.

Scenarios and Questions for Live Exchanges

Planning

Question: What are some important things for us to discuss at our upcoming event/meeting?

Give people a sense of ownership to drive engagement and build excitement. This question helps reinforce to your attendees that they are stakeholders in the event and not mere spectators along for the ride.

Live in the room after a presentation

Question: What are some things we need to be discussing about this important topic?

OR What are your thoughts, both positive and critical, about how we’re doing in this important topic?

Let the team define what they want to explore further - you will likely be surprised. Gather up a list of interests from the presentation and create opportunity to drill down into the things that matter most to the group.  

Live in the room as a wrap-up

Question: What are some key insights from this event that we should take forward into our daily work?

Take time to reflect on what everyone has learned and how they will apply it. Heck, allowing opportunity to share key takeaways can bring insights that weren’t even covered in the event. Just be sure to make time to run this one live in the room so you don’t lose the learning after everyone heads off to their busy lives.

Tips for Leading a Live Exchange

Here are a few key things to know help you launch your first Live exchange.

1. Send people to thoughtexchange.com/join and provide the 9 digit code.
2. There will be a bit of a kerfuffle at first as people get organized and sort out how to join. Don't panic. Encourage participants to lean over and help their neighbour - the room will soon become very quiet! 
3. Give them about 10-12 minutes to enter their thoughts and rate.
4. Move participants along to the star step. About halfway through (usually around 5 minute mark), announce that if they haven't gone to the star step yet, please do now. Ideally you would like participants to star at least around 30 thoughts. If participants are starring already, ask them to star at least 15-20 more (depending on how many participants you have in the room and their activity).
5. *You can keep an eye on the number of thoughts and pending thoughts by refreshing the "Results" page.
   
   We hope this is helpful. Please let me know if there is anything else we can provide or if you have any questions. Good luck!

Now that you’ve got a framework for using Thoughtexchange Standard to redefine collaboration at your next event, check out our blog post on leading great live exchanges, written by Thoughtexchange CEO Dave MacLeod.