This tool has been developed together with DD Foundation and Timeout-Foundation. The tool has been created in preparation for the Hybrid European Democracy Festival to develop pan-European discussion. This tool allows anyone to learn from the festival experience and organise transnational discussions themselves.
In this tool, we explain the concept of transnational dialogues and clarify what hybrid discussions entail, how they work, how to organize hybrid discussions technically, and provide tips for facilitating hybrid discussions. For further insights and guidance, read the material package called Arranging Hybrid and Transnational Dialogues.
Creating this tool has been funded by Nordic Councils of Ministers from the programme “Prosperous Future”. Read more about the project here.
More about Hybrid Democracy Festival.
To learn more about how to use the toolkit and get an experience of a digital transnational dialogue, we await anyone to take part in our webinar on 5th February 14.00-16.00 (Eastern European Time/Helsinki time) on Zoom.
Register to the webinar by 31st January here.
Transnational dialogues – what and why?
A transnational dialogue is a conversation between people from different countries, cultures, and perspectives. Transnational dialogues can be held in person, online, or hyperlocally.
There are many crucial benefits to organising transnational dialogues. They can help to:
- Increase understanding and empathy: By hearing from people from different backgrounds, we can learn about their experiences and perspectives. This can help us to understand the world in a more nuanced way and to develop empathy for others.
- Build trust and cooperation: Transnational dialogues can help to build relationships, trust and cooperation between people from different countries. This can be particularly important in promoting peace and preventing conflict from escalating.
- Challenge stereotypes and prejudices: Transnational dialogues can help to challenge stereotypes and prejudices about people from other countries. This can lead to a more tolerant and inclusive world.
The most difficult part of transnational discussions are the logistics of getting people together from different countries. You can do the dialogue in person, digitally or hyperlocally. All formats have their pros and cons and the right format depends on your circumstances.
Read more about choosing between physical, digital and hyperlocal for a transnational discussion from the material package.
Read more about choosing a topic that is relevant for many international settings and locations from the material package.
Read more about language awareness in transnational dialogues.
What is a hyperlocal discussion?
When physical discussions are not doable and traditional digital discussions are “not enough”, let hyperlocal discussions be the answer.
In a hyperlocal discussion participants from the same country meet in a physical room, and in that room, they will digitally engage in discussion with people in other rooms in other countries. A joint hyperlocal discussion room is created by broadcasting video and sound from these dialogue rooms. It allows people to participate in a transnational dialogue from their own cities.
Hyperlocal dialogues are the option that gives you as much from both (in person and digital) options as possible. One can think of it as the middle ground. You open up the option for participating in the dialogue for a much wider target group because you allow them to participate from their home city or country and give a better feeling of connectedness and of a trustful environment than with a digital discussion.
Its downside is the difficulty and costliness of organising since creating a good experience requires high technical equipment and professionals handling the broadcast. Also, it usually requires local partners from each country participating to organise it.
Hyperlocal dialogue
A joint hyperlocal discussion room is created by broadcasting video and sound from these dialogue rooms. It allows people to participate in a transnational dialogue from their own city.
The effect of a hyperlocal dialogue
Hyperlocal discussion aims to create the feeling of a real live discussion experience despite the fact that part of the audience and participants are behind screens. When video and sound are produced well, it mimics the viewing and hearing experience that people would normally feel during a conversation.
In contrast, the Zoom calls we are now used to lack this quality – we cannot hear people clearly, we can only see part of our conversation partner, and the internet delays the audio. Because we are used to seeing and hearing more, our brains are not satisfied with these experiences. In order to fix this, a production company will determine the necessary equipment and solutions, as well as rent equipment to create the experience.
Hyperlocal setup
A hyperlocal dialogue needs physical discussion rooms in each country you want participants to take part from. Maximum number of rooms should be 4 to create the best experience. Each room should have broadcasting equipment (cameras, microphones, speakers, screens) to connect the room with other discussion rooms and to allow the participants to connect into one joint dialogue.
Technical setup of hyperlocal dialogue
There are prerequisites that must be met that creates a good experience of a hyperlocal discussion.
Dialogue setup
A high-level production that is suitable for dialogues without an audience has following technical requirements in each discussion room:
Seeing the participants
- 2 operated cameras (long shot, medium shot)
- 1 or 2 55” LCD screens showing the participants on other locations
- Spotlights and background ambient lighting
Hearing the participants
Participants should be able to hear each other clearly and with an even quality. This requires:
- wireless microphone headsets (for participants)
- wireless in-ear monitors (for hearing the other studios and video director’s instructions)
- PA speakers (if there’s an audience that needs to hear the discussion)
- Broadcasting setup
Dialogue with an audience
A high-level production that is suitable for dialogues with an audience has following technical requirements in each discussion room:
Seeing the participants
- 3 operated cameras (long shot, medium shot, audience shot)
- 3 x 55” LCD screens (2 for audience on stands, 1 for participants on stage – all showing different shots from cameras; audience screens would display the camera feeds from the other hubs; participants screen would display both studios in split screen and timer.
- Spotlights and background ambient lighting
Hearing the participants
Participants should be able to hear each other clearly and with an even quality. This requires:
- wireless microphone headsets (for participants)
- wireless handheld microphones (for audience)
- wireless in-ear monitors (for hearing the other studios and video director’s instructions)
- PA speakers (if there’s an audience that needs to hear the discussion)
- Broadcasting setup
Discussion without delays
Hyperlocal discussion in its core is no different than any other conference call in Teams or Zoom. But instead of these platforms we’ll use professional broadcasting software which is based on Web Real-Time Communication technology (this is the one that creates no delay) that allows peer-to-peer teleconferencing and enables to have more control over the connections. This solution has proven to be secure and reliable by global broadcasting experts and high level international organisations.
A strong internet connection
To ensure seamless experience the venue should have at least 100/100 mb/s wired internet connection without restrictions. Delay of connection freezes can happen if there are some issues with the internet connection. These things will be tested out beforehand by the production teams to ensure that this does not happen, but if it does:
- In case of freezed audio or video, stay calm, finish the sentence and wait for the connection to refresh.
- Video director will give you real time instructions and updates via in-ear monitor.
- Specific guidance will be given to the facilitator, like whether they should give word to another discussion hub or ask for comments from the audience.
This setup can be modified to simpler versions:
- Using high-quality conference cameras.
Facilitating a hyperlocal dialogue
In a hyperlocal setting your focus might evolve around the technical aspects of your discussion. However, a good preparation for this format follows similar guidance than any other dialogue. The most important is – don’t forget to focus on the discussion! This can be done with thorough preparation: who should facilitate the discussion, who should participate in it and how do we engage the participants and get them to share and discuss together?
Technical tips for the preparation:
- Go over the detailed plan of the discussion with your technical coordinator before the discussion. Agree upon how the facilitator and technical coordinator will communicate during the discussion.
- Find a time before the discussion to test out the connection with all or most of the participants. This way everyone is familiar with the experience.
Tips during the discussion:
- As a facilitator, guide and control the discussion. You should give each participant a word by addressing them (by name). This way there are no misunderstandings.
- Do not interrupt other participants from the other location in the middle of the sentence so that the thoughts of another participant aren’t lost.
- Before starting to speak, the speaker should wait about 2 seconds so the automatic audio feature could enable your microphone.
- Facilitator should keep track of the time and execute the discussion plan according to plan.
- If you are using the Timeout-method during facilitation a few things are emphasised in a hyperlocal context: remember to encourage the participants to talk about their own experiences (rather than abstract opinions) and remember that it is a dialogue and not lobbying or a panel.
Staying calm during the difficulties
Even if there would occur sudden difficulties during your discussion, try to stay calm and positive as a facilitator. This will have a big difference on the general atmosphere even when others might get irritated.
- You can also prepare for what to say or do as a facilitator, in case of technical difficulties. For example: verbalise that there are some technical issues at the moment and that you will continue shortly.
- As an organiser emphasis should be placed on increasing the facilitator’s trust in the fact that the discussion will be natural and smooth despite an exciting technical setting.
Assistant for the facilitator
For more complex versions of hyperlocal dialogues, the facilitator might need some help regarding practical preparations, especially if there is an audience involved. Their role of an assistant is e.g. to:
- Communicate with the technical team and facilitator if there is someone in the audience wishing to speak
- Give the microphone to speakers from the audience
- Help to engage the audience in their hub in planned methods
- Greet the audience in their hub before the live discussion between hubs starts.
