Creating Engaging Spaces for Virtual Collaboration

Collaboration in distributed teams over hierarchical boundaries is one of the main challenges of modern companies and other global organizations. For many people, virtual tools have become a normal part of their working environment. However, most people aren't very fond of them. They consider virtual collaboration as a second-hand surrogate for physical interaction. Their telephone or web conferences drag, and the knowledge sharing instruments aren't motivating people to share. How to create online environments that please people is one of the best hidden secrets.
This workshop will particularly deal with the question how virtual spaces can be created that modern workers can enjoy and that boost their team performance.

In a highly explorative workshop based on the principles of action learning, participants will experiment with wikis, conference platforms, chat rooms, social networks and other web tools and learn how to design them based on criteria like

• effectiveness;
• design;
• usability
;
• functionality;
• interactivity.

At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to apply principles of design thinking on their own virtual work patterns. They will be able to create hospitable spaces when they introduce virtual work to their teams and clients.
Bring your own computer!