There are specific structures that make meetings high engagement. They are prime real estate for conversations that are not suited for virtual postings or email volleyball. They are optimal spaces for doing real work together in the form of drafting, option building, researching, planning and agreement making. Everyone feels free to work in pairs and small groups so the texture of the whole meeting feels and functions like dialogue rather than monologues. Everyone records their own contributions. Agenda items are questions, not topics or themes.
In low engagement meetings, many people listen to one person in monologue at a time. We waste time getting updates that should be virtual posts. We work as a whole group on something that could be mostly done by a pair or small group. We do in meetings what could just as easily be done outside them. One person takes recording engagement away from everyone else. Agendas are topics rather than questions.
People never question the social and intellectual architecture of meetings because they have never been exposed to other options. Those who do, never go back. It's just too easy to have high engagement meetings.