Keeping a workshop day on time

A long workshop or training day loses most of its time at the edges: people joining from elsewhere at the wrong hour, hunting for the slides, the projector going to sleep over lunch, and breaks that quietly stretch from ten minutes to twenty. None of these is hard to prevent, and a little preparation with these tools covers each, from a browser on the presenting laptop.

1. Send times that suit everyone

If anyone is joining from another time zone, open the World Clock and add each place, such as London, New York and Singapore, with the date of the workshop. Drag across the hours to choose the session, and the grid shows where it falls in each place’s working day. Copy text gives the times in every place, ready for the invitation, and Save .ics makes a calendar entry with them in its notes. Do the same for any session that’s only for the remote group.

2. Put the materials one scan away

Put the slides, handouts or feedback form at one web address, then make a QR Code for it and Download PNG. Put the code on the first and last slides and on the break slide, large enough to scan from the back of the room, with the address written underneath for anyone who’d rather type it. Scan it with a phone before the day to check that it opens.

3. Keep the screen awake

A laptop that dims or locks during a long discussion interrupts everyone. In a browser tab, Keep Awake stops the screen sleeping, for a set time or until you stop it, without changing your settings. It only works while its tab is open and in view: once your slides are full screen in another app, that app or your computer’s own settings decide. The Break Timer below keeps the screen awake by itself while it runs.

4. Run the breaks with a countdown

Open the Break Timer on the presenting screen. Set Minutes, or the time to be back in Or back at, which is clearer when a break runs over lunch. The Message shows Back at {time} with the time filled in, so nobody has to do the sum. For the last few minutes, set by Urgent for the last, the digits turn amber and the Urgent message asks people to come back; at zero they turn red, a chime sounds, and it counts how late the restart is, which most groups notice.

Press Test chime before the day to check the volume through the room’s speakers, then Start and Full screen at each break; press Esc to leave full screen. For practical sessions done in rounds, Intervals times work and rest periods with a chime at each change.

5. Pick people fairly and warm the room up

For a volunteer, a presenter to go first or a prize, paste the names into Random Picker, one per line, with What to do on Pick from a list. Tick Show a spinning wheel if you want the room to watch it land, then choose Go. The pick is made before the wheel spins, so the wheel is for show. For breakout groups, Split a list into groups deals the names out evenly.

For an icebreaker, Bingo Cards with Your own words makes a card for each person from phrases you type, such as “has used the tool before” or “joined from another country”. Choose Make cards, then Print the cards. The first to complete a line wins; the page does not check wins for you.