Interact and Engage, 2nd Edition

Ignite Online Events and Virtual Training with the Use of Well-Designed and Facilitated Activities

Creating outstanding virtual meetings, webinars, and training programs has always been challenging for novice and experienced instructional designers and facilitators alike. Virtual learning experts Kassy LaBorie and Tom Stone understand that the need to interact and engage is more important than ever, as online collaboration becomes the norm rather than the exception.

In this new, updated edition of Interact and Engage!, the authors offer more than 75 activities as well as tips and strategies to help you create effective online learning and masterful meetings and webinars. Activities range from warmups and icebreakers to closers and celebrations, and everything in between. LaBorie and Stone cover advanced features and techniques and guide you on how to convert or create your own online activities, no matter what technology you are using now or in the future. An appendix presents two capability models for the positions of virtual facilitator and producer.

Kassy LaBorie is founder and principal consultant at Kassy LaBorie Consulting LLC. She is a virtual classroom master trainer, specializing in developing trainers to be engaging and effective when facilitating programs in Zoom, Webex, Adobe Connect, and other online platforms. She has worked with many Fortune 500 firms in a wide range of industries and sectors, including hospitality, pharmaceuticals, energy, government, NGOs, and nonprofits.
She trains and coaches producers, the virtual classroom trainer’s partner in effective facilitation, as well as instructional designers tasked with creating or converting content for virtual classroom delivery. Kassy also advises learning and development leaders in areas like virtual classroom strategy, technology selection, logistics, and more. She has more than 20 years of experience helping organizations, learning teams, and training professionals successfully move to the virtual environment.
Since 2008, she has participated in more than 100 industry conferences as a speaker, expert panelist, and workshop trainer. Kassy is a regular presenter at such events as ATD’s International Conference & EXPO, ATD TechKnowledge, Training Magazine’s conference, TechLearn, Learning Solutions, and DevLearn.
Prior to launching her consulting practice, Kassy was the director of virtual training services at Dale Carnegie Training, a consulting service that partners with organizations to help them develop successful online training strategies. She was also the product design architect responsible for developing the company’s live online training product and experience, which grew to be a $4 million dollar business in only a few years.
Kassy has also worked as an independent master virtual trainer, a Microsoft software trainer, and a senior trainer at Webex, where she helped build and deliver training at the Webex University. Kassy is co-author of Interact and Engage! 75+ Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars (Second Edition, ATD Press, 2022), and is also author of Producing Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars: Master the Technology to Engage Participants (ATD Press, 2021). She is also the author of The Virtual Trainer’s Guide to Becoming a Hero, which is available for download on her website. You can learn more about Kassy by visiting kassyconsulting.com/about.

Tom Stone is a senior research analyst with i4cp (the Institute for Corporate Productivity), where he is a writer, researcher, and speaker. His focus is on learning and development, but he has also led research studies on workforce readiness, succession management, people analytics, automation and AI, and more.
Tom has more than 20 years’ experience in the learning and development and broader human capital industry. Prior to joining i4cp, Tom was the director of technology-based learning at Dale Carnegie Training, where he led the product development for their live online and other digital offerings. Earlier in his career Tom also served as a senior research analyst at Taleo and held various positions, including product design architect and content development manager at Element K.
Since 2008, Tom has spoken at more than 150 regional, national, and international L&D and HR conferences on a wide range of topics, and is co-author of Interact and Engage! 75+ Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars (Second Edition, ATD Press, 2022). In addition to his research and writing in the human capital industry, Tom is also an avid baseball fan and wrote the book Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises, which was published by ACTA Sports in early 2019.