Maximizing workshop success with Mentimeter

Whether you're hosting an ideation session, solving a complex business problem, or scoping out a sprint strategy, hosting an online workshop is a great way to elevate team participation, boost team engagement and brainstorm effective ideas that have long-term impact and sticking power.

No matter the number of attendees, size of your business, or problem you are facing, an effective workshop agenda can set you on the path of success. Read on to discover our top tips for running a discovery workshop for remote teams, in-person meetings and more.

Typical challenges of running a workshop

If you're planning to host a workshop, you'll likely ask yourself the following:

• ‘Where do I start?’ 
• ‘How do I get everyone to participate?’ 
• ‘How should we prioritize what ideas to focus on?’ 
• ‘When will I have the time to go through and sort out all the input?’ 
• ‘I wish I had more time!’ 

Address these challenges can be a quick fix by simply working smarter, not harder. That's where Mentimeter comes in. Mentimeter's collection of workshop facilitation tools help teams map ideas, make decisions and solve problems, turning passive participants into active contributors in just a few clicks.

Run a virtual workshop with Mentimeter

How to run a workshop with Mentimeter: Top Tips

1. Save time with workshop templates

By using Mentimeter when creating your workshops you foster collaboration, participation, and gain valuable insights that lead to meaningful outcomes.

First of all, Mentimeter not only facilitates the workshop itself but also simplifies the creation process. Whether you prefer to design a virtual workshop from scratch or seek a head start, Mentimeter provides numerous templates for various workshop agendas, including online workshops and in-person workshops. These templates offer a solid foundation, enabling you to add, remove, or modify content to meet your specific needs.

Explore our workshop template library

2. Boost participation with interactive features

Including interactive Mentimeter features is a great way to increase participation in your workshop. Here are examples of features and how they work: 

Hybrid participation: By scanning the Mentimeter QR code or using the invite link, your participants can join the workshop from any location and on any device, meaning a hybrid workshop is seamlessly accessible and inclusive for everyone!

Live polls & word clouds: Start your workshop with a live poll to warm up the audience. Polls can gauge opinions, knowledge levels, or personal preferences, making participants feel involved from the beginning. Another way to get started is by using word clouds to visualize the audience's thoughts or feedback on a specific topic. This not only looks impressive but also gives every participant a voice, making them feel like a valuable part of the workshop.

Open ended questions: Open ended questions are a type of interactive question format that allows participants to provide detailed, text-based responses instead of selecting from predefined choices (such as multiple-choice or true/false questions that limit responses to specific options). Open-ended questions invite participants to express their thoughts, opinions, or feedback in their own words, without any restrictions on the length or content of their answers. This is particularly useful for gathering qualitative data, exploring complex ideas, generating discussions, and understanding the reasoning behind participants' views.

Vote on responses: By enabling ‘Vote on responses’ while setting up your workshop and open ended questions, you give participants the ability to upvote the responses they find most interesting or would like to see addressed, facilitating the future work for you and the group/team.

Group responses: If you get more than 10 responses on your open ended question you can use the embedded AI tool to group responses based on certain criterias or themes. This makes it easier for presenters and participants to analyze and discuss the data. For example, in a workshop session, responses could be grouped into categories like "Strengths," "Weaknesses," "Opportunities," and "Threats" to facilitate a SWOT analysis.   

Feedback loops: At different stages of the workshop, use Mentimeter to collect instant feedback or thoughts on the session so far. This can help you adjust the pace or focus of the workshop in real-time, based on participants' inputs.

Final reflection: End the workshop with a reflection activity using Mentimeter. Ask participants to share one thing they learned or found particularly interesting. This reinforces learning and leaves participants with a sense of accomplishment.

Explore all our interactive features here

3. Create a safe space with anonymous voting

Mentimeter's anonymous voting feature boosts participation by reducing hesitation, increasing inclusivity, and encouraging honest contributions. It enables a safe space for sharing, especially on sensitive topics, making it easier for introverts and ensuring a diverse range of perspectives. This leads to more accurate data and builds trust in the process, enhancing overall engagement and participation.

However, if it’s a small workshop with only a few participants, it’s less anonymous as you can figure out who wrote what. So it might be worth considering not to ask too sensitive or personal questions that could make participants feel uncomfortable or exposed.

How to run a workshop with Mentimeter: Final thoughts

Using Mentimeter for your workshops not only streamlines the creation process and saves time, but it also boosts collaboration and participation, leading to outstanding outcomes. Therefore, it's time to leave behind the cumbersome old methods and embrace Mentimeter for more efficient and engaging workshops!