Photo By: Derek Bridges
How to Design a Question Friendly Workshop - Part 1
By: Maca T.
What is a workshop? Remember, it is not a lecture, where information is just being presented and accepted without audience participation.
In a workshop, it is expected that the audience participates; asks questions and becomes engaged with the presenter. With this in mind, we can now walk through, how to make a question friendly workshop.
Start by knowing what your role is; you are there to bring basic understandings, teach fundamental concepts and allow the participants to practice useful skills. Your primary objective is to take complex topics and make them understandable and useful, instead of giving in-depth coverage. As it was mentioned before, you are there facilitate audience participation, not just to speak and receive no feedback.
You should be open and friendly, in the end, you are there because of participants. Build your attendees confidence by being approachable and giving them respect, not by overwhelming them with acronyms, detailed background information and factoids.
You should be open and friendly, in the end, you are there because of participants.
When planning for workshops, a critical first step is to know the topic of focus, as well as the needs of your participants. When teaching specific skills, understanding their needs and the reason for learning them will help you deliver the proper information and tailor the workshop to your audience.
It is also a key factor to give the participants the chance to talk, apply what has been learned and reflect on it. It’s great to know and gain new ideas, but it’s also good to reassure the ones that we already have. The participant has to leave with the feeling of having a conversation more than a lecture, where you (the presenter) and the participant should leave with new ideas. This situation may only happen if you encourage them to speak, and give them space to express themselves.
Some ways of motivating the discussion are in how the set up of the venue; for example, arranging the chairs in a semi-circle, so everybody knows who they are talking to or having a hanging board where ideas can be recorded. The workshop may include interactive activities or games to raise awareness and engagement of your participants. It’s also good to have a Q&A portion to let the attendees voice any doubts, problems or questions during the workshop exercises.
These ideas may give you a different perspective while creating your next workshop. What do you think? Do you have any more ideas to add?