A big part of keeping online meetings and workshops productive and engaging for everybody is using a smart variety of interactions. Having a conversation using a videoconference app (e.g. Zoom, Hangouts, Butter, Teams"¦) can be fine, but adding other ways to interact and collaborate on work together (such as an online canvas, chat or polls) is often better.
Facilitating online meetings and workshops with multiple modes and apps like this can take some getting used to, though. It can be a big load on the brain guiding a group conversation, as well as operating a mix of apps like this (a regular interactive cocktail for me is Zoom, Mural and a Mentimeter poll).
Elgato Stream Deck makes online facilitation easier
I've found that using my Elgato Stream Deck has been a game-changer for helping me handle a mix like this. Whether I'm facilitating an online workshop, conducting a training session, or recording a training video for on-demand learning, having all the shortcut keys for these apps set up as buttons on my Stream Deck makes it much easier.
Stream Deck is like having a second keyboard for all the functions you use the most, in just about any app you use. If your app has shortcut keys, you can set those up on Stream Deck. You can set up as many profiles on a Stream Deck as you want to, where each profile is a group of functions. Then, you just swap from profile to profile as you need them.
It's definitely one of those tools where the more you use it, the more uses you can find for it. I have a "Home' profile for launching all the different apps I use, plus a profile for all the Bright Pilots classes, plus Zoom, Mural, Miro, Ecamm Live, and Butter. I even have profiles to use Emojis at the touch of a button!
Stream Deck icons for facilitation apps
What also makes the Stream Deck really attractive to use is that you can use whatever icon designs you like. There are loads available online, for free or for a small fee. I couldn't find any I really liked for the main apps I use, so I made my own.
I've got them all available for purchase (most are just $3) on Gumroad (links below). Oh, and each set comes with instructions for how to set them up with your Stream Deck.
Stream Deck icons for Zoom
The first set I made was for the app I seem to spend half my life in: Zoom. I ended up making 3 different sets, based on different styles: Zoom Blue, Zoom Glow, and Zoom Night (16 icons in each style). My favourite is Zoom Glow, but see what tickles your fancy.
Little things like being able to start/pause recording and share my screen at a touch of a button has made a big difference to my focus as a facilitator.
âž¡ï¸ Get the Zoom icons
Stream Deck icons for Mural
I use a variety of different online canvas apps, depending on which client I'm working with, and whether or not I'm using my own templates. A lot of the time I use Mural, and having all the common functions as buttons really increases my productivity, especially when I'm creating a set of panels and assets for a big online workshop.
This set has 14 icons, plus a Mural logo icon.
âž¡ï¸ Get the Mural icons
Stream Deck icons for Miro
There are other times where I use Miro instead. A lot of the functionality is the same as Mural and other online collaboration canvas apps (e.g. Allo, LucidSpark, Figjam), but I like the way objects snap-align in a nicer way, plus the bulk-edit function is great for smashing out lots of ideas as stickies in one smooth move.
The shortcut keys are very different between Mural and Miro, which for me is another reason why it's great to just press a button, rather than add 2 different sets of shortcut keys to my memory! This set also has 14 icons, plus a Miro logo icon.
âž¡ï¸ Get the Miro icons
Stream Deck icons for Butter
Have you tried Butter for videoconferencing? It has a much more friendly approach to online meetings, which you can get a feel for from its visual design and its features. It's definitely made for facilitators: it has functions like an agenda builder, timers and polls, all built in.
Its customisable URLs are also a killer feature, which is why my icon set includes several different Room icons, so you can set up buttons for the Room URLs you regularly use. I love it. This set has 22 icons for different functions, plus 2 different logo icons.
âž¡ï¸ Get the Butter icons
Stream Deck icons for Emoji
Last but not least is the second set of icons I made: emojis! I know that many sites and apps have emoji available as part of their interfaces (e.g. Slack, Twitter). And yes, you can summon emojis on desktop/laptop using Ctrl+Command+Space (Mac), or Window key + . (Windows). But I just thought it'd be cool to have my most often-used emojis available as a set of buttons, too! This set has 20 different emojis (custom drawn) as icons.
âž¡ï¸ Get the Emoji icons
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Let me know what you think about these icons, and if there are any others you'd like to see as a set for Stream Deck; I'm sure I'll be making more!