The pandemic meant great strides to use the opportunities of digitalization. Initially, the pandemic meant that many businesses became digital. Meetings were conducted using digital tools, and teaching was diverted to synchronous or asynchronous lectures and lessons through digital forums. Many experienced the transition from the physical to the digital workplace beyond all expectations. Over time, people came to talk about it as the “new normal". After the pandemic, one could see an increasing return to the workplace, discussing how it will take place and what they learned during the 18-month lock-down that the pandemic entailed. Many workplaces continue fully or partially to work from home, while others take the opportunity to discuss what worked well and should be kept and what aspects of the physical workplace that the digital transformation did not manage to recreate that should be regained. Few organizations believe they will return to exactly how things were before the pandemic. Still, the future includes solutions where people will be more or less in both physical and digital spaces. Hybrid meetings and teaching will be the “new new normal”. In connection with the return to the physical workplace, we see increased problems with hybrid meetings and teaching, achieving equal participation and difficulties creating creative learning situations for everyone. There is little knowledge about good and bad hybrid meetings and teaching, but there is a need to increase understanding about what constitutes good hybrid meetings and teaching forms. This includes what technical tools are available and how these can be used, what pedagogical methods and tools can be used to do this effectively with quality, and what leadership methods are required to implement this in a good way. The purpose has been to explore technical, pedagogical and leadership conditions for implementing hybrid meetings and teaching opportunities. We used several different research methods; literature studies with the aim of mapping the current state of knowledge in the area, study visits and field studies with the aim of meeting and interviewing various representatives from the operation and to observe how the operation is conducted in practice, and action research discussing and co-creating with the problem owners tools intended to benefit the entire organization. The case of the project is “folkbildning”, liberal adult education with the purpose of democratically and equally enabling citizens in society to absorb new knowledge and values ​​through, for example, study circles, libraries, conferences, and lectures outside the traditional school world. Folkbildning is characterized by committed teachers who have a holistic perspective on the participants and the ability to capture people who, for some reason, do not participate in the formal education system through a lower degree of formality. Folkbildning, in relation to the overall education system, has played the role of a pioneer and experimental workshop in exceptionally difficult areas when it comes to the questions of who, what, and how. The narrow framework for who could be educated has been broken and has contributed to increasing equality in participation from the perspective of class, gender, region, and generation. Based on the results of the project, we have developed guidelines on pedagogics, leadership, and technology that can be used to run your digital or hybrid meetings and education.

Keywords: Liberal adult education, hybrid education and meetings, digitalization, democratization, pandemic.