PMO | How to Organize a Virtual Town Hall Meeting

We recently planned a Town Hall meeting for an organization with 300 attendees across five regions in the world. The execution was successful, and we want to share how we did it and some lessons learned. 

What is a Town Hall Meeting? 
A Town Hall meeting is a public meeting open to everyone in an organization. The purpose is to close gaps between management and the team by establishing a direct conversation. Since the discussion is about connecting the dots, the Q&A with a panel of the leadership team plays an essential role in this activity. 

How to Prepare a Town Hall Meeting? 
When hosting a Town Hall meeting, we need to consider the following:

• Recruiting master of ceremony (MCs) who can moderate the Q&A by directing and filtering questions during the Town Hall discussion. The number of MCs is determined by (1) the number of questions and (2) the diverse background of the audience. During the meeting, The MCs can also talk to the person raising the questions by explaining the current answers and avoiding duplications. 
• Creating an (MC) Slack channel for MCs to communicate before and during the session so the questions can be moderated and coordinated across regions. 
• Setting up an (Event) Slack channel to take questions from the audience. The channel should open before the session to collect questions so the management team can prepare before the meeting. We decided to use a Slack channel instead of a Web conference chat to collect questions during the session. The reason is to keep track of the questions for better follow-ups. 
• Creating threads in the (Event) Slack channel and assigning dedicated MC for moderation. In Slack, we can create threads and ask the users to reply to the thread to enter the local discussion moderated by MCs. We generate the thread based on the number of geographic regions. The benefit of this approach is that the audience can easily decide which thread to use when some people who don't know or don't respect rules can also easily find the person's location and direct discussion by moving messages to the correct threads.
• Record the session with video moderation: The recorded session should switch focus to the panel, audience, and host so the video recording can capture the dynamic in the discussion. 

How do we direct user interaction with a friendly and accommodating theme?
The goal of the Town Hall meeting is to promote open discussions, and the theme should follow the same path. Then, the personal greetings by MCs in each discussion thread and the MC's communication with the host are critical to explaining who raises the question and sometimes calling the person to talk directly. When asking questions, the user's voice and facial expression are essential to ensure inclusiveness and engagement. 

What's the necessary action after the town hall? 
The most crucial step of a Town Hall meeting is the follow-up. What's the result when questions are asked and suggestions are made? A successful Town Hall meeting would have a follow-up retrospective that looks at questions and takes action to make something happen. We can see people asking or suggesting the same thing without taking the result. They will stop participation, and the town hall meeting will become a show. It will become less and less popular with its audience. 

Let us know if you need more information. ​