In our latest webinar, Kassy LaBorie tackled one of the most persistent assumptions in virtual training: that the right tool is what makes a session engaging. Here’s what we learned.
If you have ever run a session with all the right features and still lost the room, this one is for you. That gap between having the tools and knowing how to use them intentionally is exactly what Kassy spent the hour closing.
Meet the speaker
Kassy LaBorie is the founder and principal consultant at Kassy LaBorie Consulting, and one of the most recognised pioneers in virtual training, with nearly three decades shaping how L&D professionals design and facilitate sessions. She is the co-author of Interact and Engage! 75+ Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars (ATD Press) and author of Producing Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars (ATD Press), and her work has changed how practitioners think about engagement in the virtual world.
The real problem with engagement
Kassy opened by asking attendees what tool they kept being told they had to use right now. The chat filled almost immediately with one answer: AI.
Her response reframed the whole conversation.
Tech is cool, but people are cooler.
She made the case that tools can enhance an experience but they cannot create one. A poll is not engagement. A breakout is not connection. A webcam is not presence. What makes any of these meaningful is the design and intention behind them.
Engagement is not a feature. It is the experience that people have when they are with you.
A live poll from the session: what people actually do when asked “Any questions?”
The YOU Framework
Kassy’s session was built around a framework that reframes “you are the experience” into something practical:
- Y — Your invitation matters
- O — Own the tools
- U — Unleash your presence
Inside this framework sit five specific moments that drive real audience response, each tied to a human need:
- Invitation connects to safety
- Recognition connects to belonging
- Contribution connects to ownership
- Curiosity connects to attention
- Meaning connects to memory
The rest of the session worked through each moment with a live activity.
Key strategies from the session
Reframe how you ask
Kassy’s first principle was simple: “What did I just say or do that I could have let you say or do?”
She demonstrated this with her webcam activity. Instead of reading through a list of tips on looking great on camera, she shared the list and asked participants to type their name next to the item they wanted to discuss. The conversation became theirs to lead, not hers.
Ask people to come on camera for a reason that matters to them, and the dynamic changes completely.
Let contribution shape the session
For the contribution moment, Kassy recreated an activity from a 2020 ATD webinar where she let attendees rank the session topics, then restructured her delivery live based on their order.
She did the same here. Training came first. Design second. Production last.
The harder part isn’t running the poll. It’s being prepared to follow it.
When people have a hand in shaping what happens, they are more invested in what follows. Contribution, she argued, is what creates ownership, and ownership is what keeps people present.
Attendees ranked the topics live, and Kassy reordered her delivery to match.
Design for curiosity and meaning
Curiosity, Kassy argued, is what gets people leaning in. She offered several techniques: surprising poll results, stories with tension, unexpected questions, predictions and reveals, myths versus realities. Each one works because it creates a moment where the audience does not yet know the answer, and that uncertainty is what holds attention.
People are going to remember what matters to them. As a facilitator, it is not in my best interest to just give you the answer. It is actually better for you if I ask you to think about it.
Attendees shared one action they would take, mapped to each of the five moments.
The takeaway
Kassy closed with the idea that had run through the whole session:
The most powerful element in any session isn’t the tool alone. It’s how you use it.
The shift she was pointing to is not a new technique or a better platform. It is a way of thinking about every moment in a session: what human need does this serve, and what would it look like to design for that on purpose?
That question, more than any tool, is where intentional facilitation begins.
Watch the full recording above for Kassy’s live demonstrations, audience responses, and more from the session.
.webp)
