Honorable Lee Yeakel IP American Inn of Court

Sharing Tips For Adapting Inn of Court Activities During COVID

As so many have done, the Honorable Lee Yeakel IP American Inn of Court in Austin, Texas, has moved its previously in-person dinner meetings to virtual events. In doing so, the Inn has found some useful tips for making meetings engaging in a virtual environment. To make sure the technology runs smoothly, the Inn has an executive committee member serve as a technology guru and set up each meeting using Zoom. One aspect of Inn meetings that members enjoy the most is the networking time before the meetings. To replicate this networking, each meeting starts with members being put into virtual break-out rooms in groups of about six members. After approximately 20 minutes, everyone is returned to the main room for announcements and the presentations. To keep people engaged, some teams have used surveys throughout the presentation. Presenting the material in a game show format, such as Jeopardy, has also been used. Another trick that was very effective was to make the presentation the background in Zoom so that the presenter shows up on the screen with the material, as shown in the picture with member Matt Powers speaking.