Designing Participatory Events

Wanting to maximise participation in your meeting or event? Concerned about the journey of the group and achieving tangible outputs?

This one-day training introduces participants to the relevant thinking, tools and techniques that can assist with design, to apply them immediately in the context of events already in the pipeline, and to have their ideas peer reviewed.

Who is this course for? 

This course is for facilitators or anyone else responsible for the design of meetings, sessions or events and who is interested in the event being as participatory and interactive as possible, but who also wants to ensure that the process leads to some clear outputs/outcomes.

There is no pre-requisite for this course. For participants who have already taken our core Group Facilitation Methods course, they will recognise the principles and values of the Technology of Participation that can inform design, but these principles and values will also be introduced and explored at the beginning of this course.

Participants’ experience of the course is enhanced significantly if they have specific events/meetings in the pipeline, so that can immediately apply what they are learning to a specific example. The course will be led by an experienced trainer and facilitator who will be able to share their own experience in designing events, illustrating concepts and ideas with practical experience. The trainer will also be able to give feedback on any draft designs produced during the course. 

What you will gain

By the end of the course, you will have:

• Learnt and practised the Participatory Event Design tool, providing a framework to inform the design process (including processes before and after the event)
• Explored the concepts of Rational and Experiential Aims and understood their importance in design
• Explored the Ladder of Participation and Frameworking as tools to understand the group situation and assist in deciding who should be in the room
• Learnt and applied the factors that need to be considered in more detailed process and session design (including methods, tools/ structures, energisers, use of space, timing, documentation, facilitation role, evaluation tools)
• Considered how the ORID model of human behaviour (which underpins the ToP methodology) can be applied to process design

Training/ Learning Style

The course uses a combination of short interactive presentations and practical exercises, with facilitated group reflection and discussion. As an in-house course, the participants are involved in the final design and in determining the weight given to the different sessions, so
that the training is as relevant to their needs as possible. Handouts and worksheets will be given as required.

This specialist course is not currently on our public courses calendar.  Contact us for more information about booking this course as an in-house course for your organisation. We may also be able to run this course as a public course at your venue if there is sufficient demand.