If you want to engage the participants in a virtual meeting, you must create structured opportunities for your participants to participate actively. That's the conclusion of research conducted by Justin Hale and Joseph Grenny. Based on this research, they describe in a Harvard business Review article five good tips for creating engagement that works:

1. The 60 second rule

Make sure participants feel the problem you are presenting. You can make a problem or an opportunity more present by showing, for example:

1. Statistics
2. Anecdotes
3. Analyze

Make sure the group understands the problem or opportunity before presenting your solution.

2. The liability rule

Do not let the participants fall into the role of passive observers. Instead, create an expectation of shared responsibility: Say e.g. not: "This is a conversation, not a presentation." It usually doesn't work, the two researchers point out. Use the advice below instead.

3. No place to hide rule

Give participants highly structured, short-term tasks. Let them solve well-defined small tasks in small groups. In many video conferencing tools, it is possible to create "breakout groups" where two or more can collaborate confidentially. It can also do vide chat or Slack. Afterwards, ask the participants to share their results with the group.

4. The MVP rule

Use as few PowerPoints as possible. In short, go for what the authors of the article call "Minimal Viable PowerPoint." There is no one who can hold the interest through a long slide show.

5. The 5 minute rule

Never speak for more than five minutes before giving a task to the participant group. Otherwise, they fall back into the passive role, and from there it can be difficult to get them back. Then your presentation lasts e.g. 15 minutes, you should have 2-3 mini-tasks for the participants. It can, for example, be that you collect a list of proposed solutions, and you then let the group vote on which solution you should start working on first.