News

Hats off to Hybrid: Reflections on the one-day UK LLC Citizen Panel meeting 25th August 2025

Sarah Chave

11th Aug 2025

Sarah shares her thoughts as part of our series of reflections from some of our Citizen Panel members on the second workshop held recently at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, Edinburgh.

The series also includes contributions from Lidis (Citizen Panel Lead), Farheen and Steve.

Hats off to Hybrid: Reflections on the one-day UK LLC Citizen Panel meeting 25^th June 2025

On a sunny and warm June day the Citizen Panel met for a hybrid one-day event to reflect on the activities and ideas generated by the second round of activities of the panel between February and June. We also heard from UK LLC Director, Andy Boyd, on how the organisation had responded to and acted on the recommendations from the Panel’s first round of activities.

Some of the group had travelled to Edinburgh, home to one of the two universities that lead UK LLC, the other being the University of Bristol. Other members were able to join remotely as they were unable to be there in person for a variety of reasons such as family and work commitments, medical and other pre-arranged appointments and not travelling for health/disability-related reasons.  Face-to-face meetings can be a joy, especially after mainly meeting online and I was very happy to participate in person at the one-day Citizen Panel event in January. However, unable to travel this time I was delighted that online attendance was also possible.

Strengths of hybrid approach

I feel that the success of this online option was due to the use of many reflective activities rather than a focus on listening to formal presentations and the virtual participants forming a break-out group, facilitated by a UK LLC staff member dedicated to supporting them. This staff member was skilled and experienced in this and kept the group on-track, eased any tense moments and was very effective in reporting back to the main group. The virtual aspect also allowed Andy to attend, and report back on the organisation’s responses to the Citizen Panel’s first round activities in a lively, interesting manner. He was also able to listen and participate in some of the other discussions.

The use of hybrid approach really supported inclusion, enabling a wider range of people to attend. In January I really enjoyed meeting people in-person, the informal chats over the refreshments, making connections with other group members, learning informally about aspects of the organisation, and opportunities to work in different groups at different times. In my virtual day, I was so pleased I could still be involved in the culmination of a year’s work. The value of this should not be overlooked by those considering a hybrid event. I was also very pleased to get to know those in this group in more depth than is usually possible at short meetings, and the opportunity to learn from their ideas and their different perspectives made possible by virtual attendance.

Downsides

On the downside, technical difficulties in setting up the ability to hear and speak to each other across the different spaces did cause little delay at the start of the day. However, this did create the opportunity for some informal discussions between members of the virtual group – an aspect which can otherwise be lost. I did discover that after the event I had a very stiff neck and shoulders. I think one tends to try to sit still in virtual meetings to reduce distraction to others looking at their screens. Indeed, I remember receiving ground rules for virtual meetings at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic instructing participants to stay as still possible for this reason. In face-to-face meetings, one tends to move around more and also adjust position more even when seated.  I suggest that virtual members in a day-long event should be encouraged to turn off their cameras for some of the time so that they can wriggle a bit to overcome this problem!  

Final Thought

Altogether, it was a great hybrid event and I was so pleased to be fully included in an event in Edinburgh from my rural spot in Cornwall.