Antonia Hellman is co-founder and CEO of Toucan.

She is a recent graduate of Stanford University, having studied political science and economics.

She enjoys long walks to explore new cities, listening to audiobooks on 1.2x speed, a cup of hot water, and re-watching mediocre movies.

One of the greatest parts about Toucan is the people we share our excitement about community with. The Toucan community is so special and has been a source of inspiration, laughter, and support since the very beginning. And one of the members of our community that exemplifies everything we love is 

Shaily found Toucan about a year ago (via Tik Tok, of all places!) and was one of our first big supporters. She is a lover of community and a pro at all things event planning, so she’s seen a lot of different technologies over the years and knows what it takes to develop a strong virtual presence.

For Shaily, Toucan provides the perfect environment for her clients to gather their community members. She is passionate about helping others develop their personas and connect with others effectively via online tools, and she does this through her work as a 

. The most extraordinary thing about her is how fast her mind works and how she can internalize information to then form creative ideas. I get to see this every week at our Toucan Social, but I 

got to see it a little while back when I attended one of her clients’ events.

The event I attended was hosted by a woman that coaches other women on how to get work as B2B consultants. In total, there were around 80 people who attended, making the Toucan space an exciting sight to behold. There were profile pictures dotted all around the screen, and among those pictures were 

of Meeting Spots with different prompts. Just a few of my favorites were: 

: Fun Meeting Spots really make a huge difference! Knowing that you’re in an environment where you can be open and silly makes any conversation flow smoother.)

Creating a welcoming environment for your guests

Something to keep in mind is that virtual events - even on Toucan - require the care and attention that you would give an in-person event. Just like how you want all your guests at an IRL networking event to feel comfortable, making sure that virtual event guests get the attention they need and a solid introduction to the platform is extremely important. There are a few key steps to giving guests a solid welcome.

First, Shaily recommends creating a Meeting Spot, regardless of the event size, that says “Start Here.” This teaches newcomers the basic action of clicking the “Join” button on a group to move there. It is also very effective to have a seasoned Toucan user waiting in the “Start Here” spot, whose role is to walk newbies through the basics of the platform. And the cherry on top is that the “Start Here” spot serves as a great place for people to meet new folks and make connections right off the bat.

Second, making an announcement at the beginning of an event is always a great idea. Just like at an IRL event, the host should say hello to everyone, thank them for being there, explain where the refreshments table is - you get the gist. 😉 On Toucan, that takes the form of the host(s) getting up on Presenter Mode, addressing everyone at the event, and explaining a thing or two about how the platform works.

Lastly, Toucan’s “About Me” feature allows everyone to introduce themselves to the other people at the event however they’d like. You can write your job description, make a joke, add some emojis. Just be you. On top of that, you can add your social media and website. If lots of people fill out their profile and share a little bit about themselves, then it makes starting a conversation that much easier, not to mention following up/connecting afterwards.


The important part is that people have a good time, and part of that is making sure that nobody feels out of place. There are so many ways to make a Toucan environment feel just like everybody’s all together in person. If you’d like any more tips, just reach out to 

weekly Toucan Social on Thursdays at 3pm ET. 

Join Toucan CEO in conversation with Shaily Hakimian. Find out how she keeps her community engaged and thriving.

Shaily Hakimian Superhost Spotlight

Amar Pradhan is a Partner at Mobility Impact Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in companies changing the ecosystem of ground transportation.

, we are investing in and building a better transportation mobility ecosystem. One of the ways we do this is through a public-facing event series called Impact Debates. In these events, we bring together two protagonists who formally debate topics that we think are misunderstood; and we invite the mobility industry to attend. After the formal debate, we have a reception that tries to mimic what would happen IRL in a cocktail reception: attendees could mingle among themselves, meet the speakers, visit relevant company booths, etc.

When we first launched this event series, we hosted it on Zoom. From a practical standpoint, Zoom worked fine for the debate. But there was no way to mimic a reception through Zoom. And frankly, our participants are burned out from Zoom calls already. We needed a more organic and “fun” way for our attendees to network and share ideas.

For our latest event, we transitioned to Toucan. The team was stellar at helping us with all the nuances of using a new platform and made our lives even easier by providing a service to manage the overall event: managing polling, live streaming, and monitoring chats and inquiries to ensure there were no issues.

The whole event went off without a problem. We’ve received super positive feedback from our attendees: they enjoyed the functionality of Toucan, the ability to move between conversations and interact more organically; and for some, simply not having to sit through another perfunctory Zoom call. We’ll be using Toucan going forward for all our Impact Debates; and more broadly, for any instance where we want attendees to communicate among themselves.

Do you feel a little nervous about hosting virtual events? Amar Pradhan (Partner, Mobility Impact Partners) reflects on what it was like to work with Toucan Producers to put on a debate with lots of moving parts. 

Testimonial: A reflection on Mobility Impact Partners’ Debate

Sara knows some things about marketing, has 3 cats, loves to go for hikes and organize things by color!

It’s no secret that distributed teams need quite a few tools and applications to allow them to manage their everyday work with ease. Luckily, there’s a huge variety of tools in the market to choose from. In this blog post, we’ve decided to brainstorm and write down a list of our top remote work and productivity tools.

Our top 8 remote work and productivity tools

 is a no-brainer in terms of chat and asynchronous communication. It is great because it integrates with other software and tools and keeps everyone involved. It’s also an effective platform for 

 is an excellent tool for remote teams since it allows you to record and share messages in the form of short videos on your computer. For example, you can easily create a step-by-step tutorial for a new team member. Loom is a must-have for asynchronous workers. Say goodbye to writing long messages - send a video instead!

 is a note-taking app that syncs automatically across devices and can help you manage your work. From taking notes to writing reports, to organizing thoughts, images, or ideas, members of our team have come to rely on it.

 is a database management tool that has templates and tutorials to help you organize your work and content. It is a great tool for collaboration and it also integrates with a wide variety of other apps, such as Trello, Github, Basecamp, Google Drive, and so on. Our marketing team loves using it for our social media content calendar.

Since we are an international team, some of the non-native English-speaking members on our team rely on

It is an effective way to catch basic mistakes in grammar, punctuation, or spelling. The best part is that it corrects your writing on multiple platforms and places, such as websites, Word documents, social media channels, and tools such as Slack. It is super easy to use, and most people can get by by just using the free version.

 is an email management tool that helps you increase the speed at which you go through your emails. Its minimalist aesthetic and keyboard shortcuts are what make it so powerful to organize email inboxes, scheduling emails, use email templates, etc. If you have multiple email accounts and want help decluttering your inbox, you may want to check this one out.

 is a cloud analytics platform that allows you to create interactive dashboards based on your company’s data. The features Cluvio supports are very handy, and the tool is overall very easy to use, with a super intuitive UI and useful graphic features.

The dashboards we built on Cluvio are the best way for us to check product performance, client success, usage trends, etc.

 as our virtual workspace. A flexible video conferencing type of tool is super important to take meetings, conduct interviews, host social activities, and have work-related gatherings.

 - The Toucan Lounge - as a 24/7 office. Everybody knows to go to that same link for every call.

If you would like to learn more about our plans for remote teams, you can always check out this page: 

It’s no secret that distributed teams need a few tools to allow them to manage their everyday work with ease. Luckily, there’s a huge variety in the market to choose from. In this blog post, we’ve written down a list of our top remote work and productivity tools.

Top 8 Remote Work & Productivity Tools (2022 updated) 

Toucan co-founder.
Rabbi, driving instructor, and acrobat in parallel universes.

I live in Italy where, until Covid, remote work didn’t happen. A few years ago I asked a friend – in the IT business – why he had to go into the office every day. His answer surprised me: “Because in Italy, no one believes that people will work at home.”

To me, this seemed utterly bizarre. I come from a culture where work is measured by output, not hours spent in an office chair.

If the past informs the future, I’m pretty well qualified to talk about remote work.

 I wrote about my early experiences with remote work. I hired my first remote developer in 1995. That was so long ago that we didn’t even have a term for it. We just called it “some of our developers live too far from the office to come in” work. Today, we’d call that situation 

. Some of us were in an office; some of us weren’t.

The most notable aspect of remote work in the early days is that it was solely the province of technical workers: programmers, testers, and support personnel.

Between 5 and 10 years ago, remote work for other professions became more common.

My wife’s company, for example, is fully distributed. They are a recruiting firm with very few technologists. When I asked the CEO why he’d chosen this model he told me that it was because the 

 in America are mothers of young children.

He explained that many of those women are well-educated and want to work, but they can’t afford or don’t want full-time third-party childcare. They can only work if work is flexible. The company is very flexible. The only thing that matters is output. No one cares when or how much anyone works.

My wife’s company was an exception until Covid-19 forced many white collar workers to stay home. Now, many people work that way, and many are very happy about it.

Managers are reporting improved productivity, and lots of people are thrilled to avoid long commutes. Flexible work conditions, it turns out, are generally popular.

Of course, there are problems with everyone being remote.

Some people can’t motivate themselves to work when they’re at home. This is a tough problem to solve. I suspect that in some cases people don’t have the personality to work in isolation. In others, the job is boring. Maybe they didn’t work when they were in an office either, but going in and seeing colleagues may have made them feel as if they were getting more done. It’s easy to waste time in an office!

Some people miss in-office socializing. We’re social animals. Luckily a lot of companies – including Toucan! – are working to solve this problem.

Some people don’t have enough space at home and don’t have the right setup. These problems will take time to resolve themselves. A lot of people in small urban apartments moved out into bigger houses when the health crisis hit. Others couldn’t because they were locked into long-term leases, or because they had a mortgage that was bigger than their property’s value. And finally, some people didn’t move because they assumed that working-from-home was temporary.

It’s clear from recent research that our way of working has 

. Some companies will be fully-remote (Toucan is!), some will be fully centralized, and some will be hybrids.

 will ultimately be the most common model.

Having a centralized office is useful.  High-bandwidth interactions can be very productive. On the other hand, having some people on-site and others off-site will create a two-tier workforce. We’re going to have a tough time resolving that problem.

My wife’s company deals with the bandwidth problem by having two in-person all-hands meetings every year. She tells me that they are a fantastic way to get the whole company in sync and that an enormous amount is accomplished at every meeting.

So is this it? Is remote work going to become a permanent part of our landscape?

In some cultures, absolutely.  In others, absolutely not.

I can report my friend was right. In Italy, nobody working from home is actually working. Government agencies and private companies have become completely unproductive. And the excuse is always the same: “Things go slower with smart working.” Yes, they call it “smart working”, even though it involves no work and, in this environment, it’s definitely not smart.

Remote work in 2021 is an entirely different ballgame then it was pre-pandemic. Join Paul Murphy in exploring the new remote work lifestyle.

What is remote work and how is it changing in 2021?

Our team always loves hearing about new applications for Toucan, and one of the most interesting ones has been conferences. There have been several hosted on our platform in the past few months, one of which was the Code BEAM virtual conference.

 conference is a multi-day event focused on applications of the Erlang and Elixir coding languages. Francesco Cesarini and John Baughen organized a virtual Code BEAM this year and used Toucan for the networking component of their event. And it was a huge hit!

That’s the purpose of the Code BEAM conference - and most virtual conferences, really. Conferences centered around one particular topic bring people together from all over to learn, discuss, collaborate, and network. The 

; it creates bonds and interpersonal connections among members of interest groups, which can, in turn, result in job opportunities, mentorship, and friendship.

This is where Toucan comes in. We’ve had so many virtual conference organizers come to us and say exactly what John and Francesco told us: “We only wish we had found Toucan earlier!” Creating a 

 close to an in-person one has been a challenge for so many organizers that aren’t familiar with Toucan. But once they begin using our platform, they realize that holding a conference 

a solid networking solution is incredibly detrimental to the overall conference experience.

That’s one thing that makes Toucan so great - and something that both Francesco and John mentioned when giving advice to future Toucan hosts. When you’re running a conference, the last thing you want to do is spend time wrapping your head around some complicated software. Toucan is the exact opposite of that. All you need to do is create the event itself, send out the link, and then wait for the “ding, ding, ding” of your guests arriving. “It’s simple and intuitive, and there’s no clutter.”

Not having to worry about learning complicated new software means that you can focus on enjoying yourself. “Be yourself. Have a good time and network. Meet old friends and make new ones!”

Code BEAM recently hosted a virtual conference of Toucan for their community. Read on to find out about their experience and their chat with Antonia.

Code BEAM Virtual Conference x Toucan Events

If you are looking to be inspired to be a better Toucan host, look no further. Kae Huynh (EnterpriseGuy) is a Superhost in every sense of the word. He was an early adopter of Toucan last summer, he is a regular at our weekly socials--so he finds out about our newest features before anyone else--, and he throws tons of events for his communities on social media.

EnterpriseGuy made a name for himself in the Bay Area for hosting in-person events and meetups. Networking is what he does. And when COVID-19 hit, he had to take everything virtual. With traditional video conferencing tools, finding the same engagement as what he had in-person was challenging. But then he was introduced to Toucan.

Since the summer, he has hosted several events for his LinkedIn communities. These events started with his “🎉Networking Parties🎉”, where anyone connected with him on LinkedIn could join just by clicking the link. Over time, he picked more specific audiences, such as software investors.

When asked about what both he and his guests get out of using Toucan to network, he said, “My audience are investors. So they come in and they want to meet other investors, and it's very easy for me to present ideas...And they can do that in every other bubble, too. So I think that's been an amazing social use case that helps me, as an influencer, business operator, investor—whichever—build up my network, build up my business, engage with my audience, and try to continue to do what I do.”

One of EnterpriseGuy’s favorite things about Toucan is that spreading the word is so easy. Once you’ve created your event, all you need to do to invite your friends, colleagues, and followers is post the unique link somewhere. “What I do is I create a simple event on Toucan, and that gives me a link. Then I take that link, I integrate it with my marketing, and then I send the marketing out...Then people come in and sign up for it, and we host the event.” It’s really seamless, and he emphasized how guests of all ages and technological skill sets pick up on how to use Toucan instantly.

EnterpriseGuy sees Toucan as being the next frontier for influencer engagement, and he’s the pioneer. It is not enough to just have a following; you have to create a brand, a community around yourself (i.e. EnterpriseGuy--except that one’s taken, sorry). Toucan is redefining what it means to be an influencer and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for audience engagement. He puts it best, “this is one of the rising tools in the influencer stack. Because, as a host, you are an influencer. You just don’t know it yet.”

EnterpriseGuy is one of Toucan's superhost. He has used the platform to host his communities networking events. We interviewed him to find out more.

Toucan x EnterpriseGuy

We can’t talk about Superhosts without talking about Andrew Bennett.

A little while ago, Andrew found himself wondering why he couldn’t find a community of people who just wanted to practice their language skills, regardless of what languages they spoke. There were plenty of groups centered around one 

language, but none that he knew of invited people who spoke a vast array of them at the same event. What if there was a group of people that got together around a certain topic of interest and then wandered into respective groups to discuss that topic in whatever language they’d like?

He considered the idea for a while but encountered a roadblock. All the traditional video conferencing tools were terrible for this kind of group. Without the ability to move yourself around however you’d like, people would feel stuck, and an unreasonable amount of pressure would fall on the host to coordinate everything. But then he found 

When Andrew came across Toucan, he finally understood how he could make his dream online community a reality. Because Toucan lets people move around freely and lets you see everything that’s going on around you, event attendees can go to any group they want. They can practice any languages they speak or are actively learning 

having to rely on the host to move them around. He calls these events “Multilingual Monday Meetup” (MMM). MMM events, with presenters, happen about once a month. On weeks without a curated event, MMM’s 

 is open for casual chatting. This is a perpetual Toucan space, with Meeting Spots already prepared for languages requested by MMM members.

Additionally, Toucan makes it easy to have the topic-driven events that Andrew was imagining. With Presenter Mode, he can invite a speaker or several speakers that are experts in a certain field to talk to everyone. And since Toucan has a nifty little sound mixer when someone is presenting, guests at the event can even chat with each other and practice their languages while the presenter is talking. This is perfect for sidebar conversations and in-the-moment comments. Simply put, it makes the event feel more human.

Something that Andrew has noticed about MMM is that it isn’t just an educational experience. Yes, people come for the speakers, and, yes, they may come for the language practice, but they also come to meet people and make new friends. He told me that he has witnessed several groups chatting until the moment the event automatically closes, the very end, about an hour after the presentations finish. When people come on Toucan, they want to stay. And they want to stay connected with the people that they meet.

That’s where the “About Me” feature -  or as Andrew calls it, “my Toucan business card” - comes in handy. Not only can you write a little bio about yourself to give everyone at the event a sense of who you are and what you are interested in, you can also add your website and your social media accounts, so anybody you meet knows where to reach you.

I can’t finish a blog about Andrew without mentioning something he’s done that I think is 

cool. I have attended several events with him in the past, where he has advertised MMM in a creative way. He has a separate Toucan account, and he set the profile picture for that account to be a QR code that takes you to the MMM meetup.com page when you scan it. That way, anybody who’s interested can learn more about his events just like that! All he has to do is log into an event that he’s attending using that separate account from a different device. So he can enjoy the event himself, while his second account does the advertising for him. Creativity is encouraged on Toucan!


Join Toucans CEO in her interview with Andrew Bennett where we find out how he uses Toucan Events for his Multilingual Monday Meetups.

Small picture of Andrew Bennett and Antonia Hellman 

Superhost Spotlight: Andrew Bennett

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: there are no more creative people in this world than teachers. Especially during pandemic time, when many of us may have taken a bit of a break to get our footing with this virtual world, teachers could not. Their jobs have never been easy, but COVID forced them to take even more onto their plates.

A reason why I have such a deep appreciation for educators is that I was fortunate to have been surrounded by brilliant, funny, caring, encouraging, passionate teachers growing up. One teacher that had a massive impact on my intellectual curiosity, empathy, and creativity is Mrs. Roxanne Feldman. And, funny enough, approximately 17 years after I first walked into her library, she is now one of Toucan’s biggest Superhosts.

Whenever I want to learn something new and cool about my own platform, I go to Mrs. Feldman. Ever since she got on Toucan late last summer, she has been coming up with inventive ways to engage her students virtually. For the past few months, she has been hosting “Toucan Tuesday” with the students in her homeroom to give them regular social interaction - a space to just hang out and have fun.

She loves that she can let her students socialize with each other without her being actively present in their groups. Because of Toucan’s speech rings, she can keep tabs on who is talking, if one person is talking more than others, and if a group’s energy is low. When she sees that a group may benefit from a bit of facilitation, she pops in and chats with them. And sometimes her students need a bit of alone time to finish an assignment or take a break; and that’s totally fine. On Toucan, you can socialize on your own terms, which suits all students’ comfort zones.

During Toucan Tuesday, students do a variety of activities. Mrs. Feldman and her students love collaborative games and projects. 

 is a favorite - where students take turns drawing and guessing different images. A new one that Mrs. Feldman introduced me to is 

 - an online painting program, where multiple people can work on the same piece at the same time. She has her students split into groups on Toucan, each group chooses a picture to draw, and they divide that picture into equal parts. Each member of the group paints one section of the picture, and they end up with a masterpiece!

Mrs. Feldman’s favorite part about Toucan is her perpetual space. She is one of a small handful of people both inside and outside our company that has a special space that is open 24/7, so she can host whomever she’d like on Toucan whenever she’d like - all by using the same link. She’s helping our team test this feature (it’s coming soon). She loves having her own home base within our platform that she can customize and call her own. Plus, she gives her link to her friends, so they can access it on their own when they need to rendezvous. It’s the perfect informal meeting place. Plus, it’s fun!

Attending school online is challenging, especially if you are in middle or high school. Socializing with others is actually a huge part of students’ educational experiences, and that has fallen to the wayside at a lot of schools. Mrs. Feldman is actively working to buck that trend. The world is lucky to have people like Mrs. Feldman out there, constantly thinking of creative ways to make children’s lives a little brighter.

Let us know if you’re interested in a perpetual space by sending us an email at 

, and we’ll let you know when the feature is available.

Since last July, Roxanne Feldman has hosted hundreds of people on Toucan and come up with the most innovative activities. 

Superhost Spotlight: Roxanne Feldman

We keep hearing people talk about “remote work” and “hybrid models” of work, but for many, it can be difficult to envision what that means. But Ken Newby and the Vision RE team have cracked the code. They have figured out a way to emulate their in-person office feel online with, you guessed it, Toucan.

This past year has forced many companies around the world to rethink not only how they do work, but how they engage and connect their teams. Community and togetherness has become more of a conscious priority than ever before, and that’s what brought Ken and his colleagues to Toucan in the first place.

 is a safety company based in Alberta, Canada, and that’s where their office was. Having worked together in person for quite a while, they had developed an implicit office etiquette tailored to their work style. When they could no longer work together in person, they went off in search of a platform that would support that same office etiquette, thus allowing everyone to work and interact in, essentially, the same way that they did before.

Ken Newby describes the Vision RE office space as including several “pods,” with 3 people in an office space - but with 4 desks, just in case someone from a different pod needs to pop in and collaborate. Having 3 people in a pod is perfect because it allows anyone that needs help to simply turn around and get outside input. They have been able to recreate this fluid, collaborative environment using Toucan. In their Vision RE 

, all they have to do is create Meeting Spots for each respective “pod.” That way, everyone knows exactly where to go.

In an in-person office, each individual can also have their own personal space to work. This can be done on Toucan as well. Ken describes how, within the company’s 

, each team member has their own designated 

, which serves as their personal “office.” And part of the Vision RE remote office etiquette is that, whenever anyone uses their own “office,” they provide a status: “Door open,” “Door ajar,” and “Door closed.” The first means that they are inviting others to come in at any time. The second means that they are busy but can be interrupted for time-sensitive matters. The third means that they cannot be disrupted at all. This system mimics the physical signals that one would observe in their in-person office.

. One for their office space, and one called “Connections,” where they invite people from outside their company to meet. This can be clients, and it could be potential hires. Regardless of who it is, they always come away with the same reaction: “Wow.” It’s always so easy bringing new folks onto the platform, and the casual environment speaks volumes about Vision RE’s values. Seeing the freedom that Toucan affords you instantly conveys a company culture of inclusivity, kindness, respect, and trust.

Ken Newby is interviewed by Toucan CEO to discuss how VisionRE is using the platform as their remote work space.

Superhost Spotlight: Ken Newby on the future of remote work

Are you in need of a quick fix of fun and laughter for your virtual meetings? We have all been to Zoom socials and know that the platform is extremely limited when it comes to supporting remote teams and virtual mingling. As you know, we are a widely distributed team, so facilitating the most engaging online meetings is especially important to us. That’s why we decided to keep a little black book of activities and icebreaker games to spice up our own virtual meetings. Here it is - enjoy, and happy meetings!

Watercooler talks and different Slack channels can only take you so far. You probably need to go the extra mile if you’re managing a virtual community. Getting your remote team happy, engaged, and united in this work-from-home era is easier than you think. So don’t panic! We’re here to help.

From “Team Photos” to “Guess the Desk”, these online meeting activities will turn coworkers and acquaintances into a virtual community. Buckle up!

Yes, your team is working virtually, but that doesn’t (and shouldn’t) stop you from taking team pictures. Photographs are great because they allow you to save memories, and it’s as easy as taking a screenshot. We dare to say that taking a virtual photo with your team is as fun as taking one in real life! You can repeat it a thousand times, and you have plenty to improvise with - faces, gestures, props around your desk, virtual backgrounds (like 

Camera). Get creative! We hope this inspires you to take great pictures from now on!

 These photos also make nice content for your social media channels, for your newsletters, and for sharing on Slack!

This game is so much fun and soooo simple that it is unbelievable. The goal is to have your team trying to learn a bunch of fun and cool stuff about each other until they find something they all have in common. If you have a bigger team, maybe split it into a few smaller ones. It is super fun because you never know what random interests and experiences you have in common with your colleagues. It could range from hating ABBA to having taken violin classes; from a peanut allergy to have had a golden retriever growing up. How cool is that? There aren’t a lot of opportunities to learn random trivia about people, especially when you are all distributed and remote.

 Save all the answers in a spare document or Slack channel. And at the end of each year, go back to that document and rewind to these amazing memories that you made virtually.

Do you want a better way to get to know your team a bit better? You are familiar with their background on video calls, and what they have behind their backs, but you probably never imagined what 

Start a virtual activity around this - ask everyone on your team for a pic of their workspace and share them (maybe one per day or week) on your communication channels. Or even better, make a 

!  Ask everyone to guess who they think that desk belongs to. This will be a team-building experience that will for sure help start conversations and break the ice on your next online meeting.

You can also do this with other spaces in the house like the fridge, the pantry, bathroom, or even the bookshelf. You can tell a lot about someone from how they organize their physical space - have some fun with it!

For this activity, all you need to do is ask everyone on your team to go to their phones and share the last photo on their camera roll.

(Here’s the last pic that a member of our team took. How pretty is this sunset?)

You can do this activity while on a video call or online meeting. Or you can ask people to post them on your Slack channel - perhaps once a week. If you choose the latter, we suggest you do it on the day you have a team meeting or catch up, so you can use it to kick off the conversation.

Icebreaker questions are the gateway to simple 5-minute activities that can generate a lot of good conversations. It can be a simple question such as “What did you have for breakfast?” or as out-there as “What’s your favorite dragon?” (Someone actually asked Antonia - our CEO - that recently, and it started a seriously deep conversation. Not kidding). You can go as random and funny as you want. It goes without saying, however, that you should avoid offensive questions and always respect people’s boundaries. We recommend icebreaker questions for every 

virtual activity that your team might have

: a regular virtual meeting, some virtual happy hour, one-on-one, all hands, etc.

 Keep it short and start slowly, especially if your team is rather new or if you are onboarding someone new. Also, to make it less chaotic, set an order in which each person responds. If you're on Toucan, that’s easy as the order you see on the screen is the same for everyone. Other video software platforms might not work this way, but you can always decide an order (alphabetically or by age).

Emojis are a language that we all speak. They’re so popular because they help us express what we’re feeling better than plain text. So, why not turn this into a virtual meeting activity?

All you need to do is ask people to take a screenshot of their most-used emojis on their phone or computer. As they say, emojis are the window into the soul.

Are you in need of a quick fix of fun and laughter for your virtual meetings? At Toucan we have a a little black book of virtual activities and icebreaker games to spice up our own online meetings. Here it is - enjoy, and happy meetings!

6 Activities and Icebreaker Games for Fun Virtual Meetings

Remote work culture has become a buzzword in the past years, due to our reliance on it during the pandemic. But, even after 3 years, it is still something that every company really needs to improve upon. In this blog we talk about remote work culture, what it is, why it matters, and how to build it.

 at Toucan is “the genuine feelings of connection, togetherness, and understanding among co-workers due to the intersection of their work and personal lives.”

culture is a strong sense of connection forged over technology - such as video calls, games, asynchronous messaging, gifts, etc. This sense of belonging is undeterred by time differences, language barriers, etc.

Now that we have a clear definition in mind of what remote work culture is, let’s understand why it matters so much. The truth is that since the pandemic “remote work culture” has become a buzzword that companies and organizations use, oftentimes without actually putting that philosophy into practice.

But, if a company or community neglects its work culture, there will be consequences. Having a healthy environment to work in 

. It boosts employees’ satisfaction with their work and reduces feelings of loneliness, thus making people more productive. If you haven’t started it yet, there’s never a better time to start than the present.

Companies that were already working on a remote basis before the pandemic 

 doesn’t come from a physical office. The

 are scientifically proven, and for most companies, life-changing for 

 seems to be the biggest and most common struggle. But if everybody contributes to building a positive company culture, it will result in true meaningful connections. To make people feel less lonely, we recommend regular, casual check-ins with teammates that you relate to or work closely together with. And make sure that on every team meeting or work meeting you leave some time for people to chat about life and non-work related topics.

A solid remote work culture can help every company succeed. If people feel good and connected, have a sense of belonging, and have a sense of purpose, chances are they might be 

more active, productive, proactive, and motivated to do their job

. Remote work culture is just like in-person work culture in that way.

To work properly and achieve the expected results, colleagues need to communicate and care for one another. That’s why a strong remote work culture tends to be intertwined with team deliverability. A 

 might also contribute to everyone being open to speaking their minds, sharing ideas, and socializing.

If you want to learn more about why socializing is so important for remote teams and how to make the most out of it, check out 

How do I build a remote work culture inside my own company?

The first thing you need to do is understand why your employees love to work at your company, what their shared values and interests are, and what they prioritize in terms of a healthy and safe workplace. The next step is to make sure that you include all those values in each part of your business.

The most difficult part of building a remote work culture is that most conversations tend to be work-related. Calls among colleagues tend to be scheduled or focused on specific deliverables. To promote camaraderie, companies must be more inventive and intentional when it comes to 

. There’s a lot that you can do, such as holding 

, birthday parties for your team, etc. There are also a ton of 

There’s so much we can do to make work days better for everyone. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all type of strategy, but there are tons of ways you can make it work for you.

Remember, one way that you can bring your team together and guarantee a good time is by using Toucan. Learn more about different Toucan plans and find the one that works for you 

. If you would like to talk with us and ask questions about which one is right for you, you can always book a call with us using 

. Or if you would like, send us an email at 

Remote work culture has become a buzzword in the past years, due to our reliance on it during the pandemic. But, even after 3 years, it is still something that every company really needs to improve upon. In this blog we talk about remote work culture, what it is, why it matters, and how to build it. 

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