Technology
We choose deliberately which tool fits when:
to your purpose, your group and what your participants are used to.
This is where your gathering takes place. You pick one; you don't need the rest.
Tools
To raise interaction and collaboration within a gathering we sometimes bring in outside tools. We combine them with the platform, so you don't have to pick them yourself.
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Thinking and capturing together
The digital whiteboard we use most. Sticky notes, timelines and canvases; everyone works on the same board at once, and by the end the output is already captured. We build the board beforehand, so participants only have to write.
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Gauging and prioritising
Polls, word clouds and votes during a presentation. Participants answer on their phones and watch the result appear live. That way a large group gets a say in ten seconds.
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Energy and testing knowledge
The quiz everyone knows. Short, competitive and effective at bringing attention back after an hour of listening. We write the questions around your organisation.
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Everyone gets a say, even in large groups
Pulls responses out of the chat and puts them live on screen — as a map, a cloud or a race. Handy when not everyone can speak, but everyone has something to say.
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Voting that holds up legally
Weighted voting rights, secret ballots and a traceable result that holds up to formal scrutiny. We bring it in for members' meetings and board meetings, where the outcome has to stand up.
More to come
Tools for recording and transcripts are on the way.
For more playful interaction we have also designed a set of our own tools . We can build those around your gathering too.
Frequently asked questions
Teams is a work platform: it's tied to your Microsoft 365 environment, your calendar and your documents, and it's built for internal meetings. Zoom is more of a standalone meeting application that almost anyone can use without explanation, including people outside your organisation. For a gathering with external participants Zoom is therefore usually smoother; for daily internal work Teams is more practical.
That depends on the platform and on the licence. In Zoom and Teams an ordinary meeting usually runs to a few hundred participants; with an add-on or a webinar licence that goes considerably higher. In SpatialChat we work with groups of up to around 600. We arrange the right licence, so this isn't something you have to work out.
In a meeting everyone can talk and appear on camera. In a webinar a few speakers broadcast and the rest watch; participants ask questions through the chat or the Q&A. A webinar therefore scales much further, but no conversation happens. Want both? Then we combine them: broadcast plenary and afterwards talk further in smaller spaces.
Not with SpatialChat: that runs entirely in the browser and you just enter your name. With Zoom and Teams you can usually join through the browser too — choose “Continue on this browser” — although the app is a little more comfortable. For participants from outside an organisation we deliberately take the route with nothing to install.
If it is about broadcasting to a large audience with registration in advance and several sessions side by side, Zoom Events was built for that. If you want people to genuinely meet — join a table, talk afterwards, wander around — SpatialChat works better. The choice follows from what has to happen, not from the number of participants alone.
Yes, on every platform we work with. The organiser switches it on and has to say so beforehand; participants see a notice on screen while it's recording. We agree in advance what is recorded and what isn't — break-outs and informal spaces are left out of the recording as standard.
Every platform publishes where its data sits, how it is encrypted and which certifications it holds; we link straight to that, so your IT department can check it. SpatialChat, for instance, runs on servers in Ireland, with encryption in transit and at rest, and a data processing agreement is available.
Break-out rooms are small rooms where part of the group talks separately. They work well as soon as a group gets too large for everyone to have a say: in a group of four almost everyone joins in, in a group of forty nobody does. We design beforehand who ends up where and what the task is.
Yes, and we often do. The platform is the space; tools such as Miro, Mentimeter or Kahoot come in alongside it for collaborating, gauging or energy. Participants notice little of it: they click one link and we make sure the rest is ready.
Joining usually works, but it's rarely comfortable: the screen is small and not every feature works. For a gathering where people also work together, we advise a laptop or computer. As a fallback when your laptop is being difficult, the phone is perfectly fine.
For short, small meetings almost every platform has a free version, usually with a time limit. As soon as it is about larger groups, registration or a space of your own, a paid licence is needed. For a hosted gathering the licence is included in our proposal; you don't have to buy anything yourself.
Yes. If your organisation runs on Teams or Zoom, we work in it with you. Sometimes that's the sensible thing: the gain then sits in how the gathering is built, not in a different tool. We say so honestly when a different platform would make a difference.
What do you choose?
What has to have happened by the end of your gathering? Does something have to be decided, or do people need to get to know each other? Does the group meet regularly, or is this a one-off? And what are your participants used to — have they been in meetings all day, or is online the uncomfortable part for them?
The form follows from those answers, and only then the platform. Sometimes that's the tool you already have, and the gain sits mostly in how you build the gathering. Sometimes something else is needed, because what you want simply doesn't happen in a grid.
Want to talk it through?
In a short conversation we usually know which direction suits your gathering.
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