Problem Description

There are very few venues open to planning meetings. Most all of the  meetings have gone to a virtual format, which is being handled very badly by many of the people who ran in-person meetings fairly well. There are also many meeting planners that are being ignored by these virtual venues.

The old in-person meetings relied on networking to fill any gaps in the activities, especially before and  after the  main part of the scheduled meeting. And otherwise relied on the  speaker to fill the time and  space of the meeting.

Resources

Meeting Planners already have many of the skills needed. The planners are organized, and they are available. What they are lacking, is experience with the various virtual meeting platforms.

Solution

I believe that a new type of speaker will arise from this new environment. These new speakers, Virtual Handlers, apply many of the skills that the meeting planners already have.

Virtual Handlers facilitate the following activities:

1. The Virtual Handler co-host the meeting.
   • They are responsible for the technology (virtual platform choice and functions)
   • The primary host still owns the meetings.
2. The Virtual Handlers plan the meeting.
   • Most people do not want to speak in public. (The number one fear in the US.)
   • Main meeting and break out functions.