Interact and Engage, 2nd Edition: 75+ Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars

We are all being asked to up our game in today's virtual learning space and the new edition of Interact and Engage! arrives just at the right time. Drawing from their extensive experience in the field of professional development, Kassy and Tom give us an insightful, pragmatic, and proven resource to help meet the challenge. This book is now my go-to reference when designing or refreshing virtual learning events, and I encourage others to pick up a copy and keep it close at hand.

Kevin D. Wilde, Executive Leadership Fellow, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota; Former CLO, General Mills

We arent using virtual meetings and virtual training to make the best of a bad situation anymore. This is the way we work and were not going back. Interact and Engage! is filled with practical tools and ideas trainers and meeting managers can use right now to create great virtual experiences.

John Con, Principal, the 11th Hour Group

A book like this can only come from years and years of experience. Interact and Engage! is an amazing compendium of training activities that readers can copy, tweak, and put into practice. I circled so many ideas that I will proudly use in my next virtual presentation. My hat is off to Kassy and Tom! Bravo!

Beverly Kaye, Author, Speaker, Thought Leader, 2018 ATD Lifetime Achievement Award

If you want virtual delivery to deliver results, begin by designing your events with the tools and activities in this book. Kassy and Tom have once again given us a gift of clear, specific instructions on how to engage audiences in an environment where disengagement is so easy.

Patti P. Phillips, CEO, ROI Institute

A month before the global pandemic changed our world and the learning profession forever, Kassy LaBorie brought the ideas of Interact and Engage! directly to our learning team. Our new skills helped us pivot from nearly a 100 percent in-person, instructor-led format to 100 percent virtual classroom learning in less than three months. The expertise Kassy and Tom shared equipped our team to have a rapid, positive, and long-lasting impact on our learners and our company.

Steve King, Vice President, Rich Talent Center, Rich Products Corporation

When you need a great idea to liven up a virtual meeting or training session (and who doesn't need that constantly today), this is the book for you! Kassy LaBorie and Tom Stone have created a masterful cornucopia of great exercises.

John Boudreau, PhD, Senior Research Associate and Emeritus Professor, University of Southern California

Facilitation is the skill and art of making engagement happen. Virtual meetings, sessions, and learning activities soar when we design and leverage facilitation to maximize the experience of participants. This new edition of Interact and Engage! presents a powerful set of activities that will supercharge the energy and impact of virtual gatherings. A must read!

Elliott Masie, Chair, Masie Learning Foundation

The biggest mistake virtual instructors make is assuming that the engagement skills they use in the classroom transfer to online. Interact and Engage! provides an amazing reference of easy-to-use and well-tested methods to master the hardest skill in teaching: engagement! Its a must for every virtual instructor.

Bob Mosher, CEO and Chief Learning Evangelist, APPLY Synergies

Interact and Engage! is the rare book that is always within an arm's reach of my desk. I reference it often for ideas and inspiration for how to keep the online events I host feeling fresh, and to ensure the attendees of those events are getting the best learning experience possible.

David Kelly, CEO, The Learning Guild

I love what this second edition brings! Just when Zoom fatigue is gripping us all, this second edition brings fresh new ideas for us to make our virtual sessions more engaging, more effective, and, most importantly, more relevant for the audiences we are all trying to connect with through our screens.

Rob Lauber, CEO and Founder, XLO Global; Former CLO, McDonald's

Interact and Engage! has a permanent spot on my desk. Its my go-to resource when I am looking for ways to get the most out of a virtual meeting through activities that are easy to execute and create an inclusive environment for collaboration.

Humera Malik Shahid, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer and VP, Talent Development, Intuit

Captivate your online participants from start to finish. Interact and Engage! offers stimulating starters and clever closers with amazing activities in between to meet your every need.

Elaine Biech, 2022 ISA Thought Leader; Author, ATDs Handbook for Training and Talent Development; Principal Author, TDBoK

This second edition of Interact and Engage! is the ultimate guide to designing and delivering virtual sessions. Updated for the post-pandemic world, it covers the latest technologies and scenariosa must read and must apply for anyone who designs and facilitates virtual meetings and training.

Brenda Sugrue, Global Chief Learning Officer, EY

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 trainers 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 ATDs International Conference & EXPO, ATD TechKnowledge, Training Magazines 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 companys 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 Trainers 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: Baseballs All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises, which was published by ACTA Sports in early 2019.