Serious Play Forum

[Manon Erkens]

Hello! Has anyone experience with a short workshop, about an hour, for a large group (350 people)? – I intend to use the Window Exploration Bag and do some skillsbuilding. Let them talk about their model in groups (table) of about five or six people? To facilitate this process it’s to expensive to have 35 facilitators . Could it be fine if I have some extra facilitators walking around, to assist where needed? Do you have any other suggestions? Thanks for any tips or advice!

[Rodrigo Borgia]

Hi Manon,

This is a great challenge, indeed!

I have been doing big groups workshops. My suggestions would be to focus just in two concepts:
1) Warm-up for about 40 minutes.
2) The topic you would like this group to discuss.
And instead of having strong facilitators collaboration (would be the best, but as you mention is a little expensive for this group), to set up in a powerpoint the timeline you will be following, very strictly.
Hope this helps.

Have fun,

Rodrigo

[Manon Erkens]

Thanks Rodrigo! Very helpfull, I will definitively use a timeline in my powerpoint!

[Wiro Kuipers]

Hi Manon,

a few suggestions:

– work in really small groups, so you can move on – instead of waiting for several tables to finish their discussions

– do not just set up a timeline, but use a visible timer as well – so people know when they should finish and you don’t have to scream to silence them

– make the challenges really comprehensive and don’t try to touch on too much serious content in just an hour

– be clear in expectations on your role: you can’t cover all tables – so stick to facilitating the overall process instead of individual tables

– a hand-out with some contents and the stated challenges might work, as does a clear instruction for one person per table who could take some pictures and share them

– be sure to put some table cloths on the tables you use, 350 people playing with LEGO make noise!

– and yeah: have some co-facilitators in the room, or brief a few persons – use them for keeping track on the process / a good flow in the meeting as well, instead of putting them on a table close to the participants

Want to know more? Feel free to reach out: wiro@zinindezaak.nl

Good luck, Wiro

[@SeanBlair]

Hi Manon – See a case study of a very similar workshop (320 people – 1 hour) is here: http://www.meeting-facilitation.co.uk/conferences-and-events/index#imex-association-day

I ran this alone and it worked great. If you need any tips drop me a message – kindly Sean

[Stephen Dann]

I’ve done workshops with parallel tables using the Window Exploration Bag/The Serious Duck, and one of the things that I’ve found valuable for managing parallel tracks is to have bag labels – if you’re laying out 60 tables worth of Window Kits, and those kits come a printed page identifying the participant (Player 1, Player 2 etc), then you can establish with the participants that everyone has a participant number, and that will be used in turn. It helps keep track and get people to know when it’s their turn.

Happy to share the booklet design I use for the Window kit if it would help

[Mark Matlock]

Stephen,

I’d be interested to see your booklet,

Mark

[Manon Erkens]

Thanks Stephen, I would like to see your booklet design. That would be very helpful! Manon.erkens@live.nl :-)

[Stephen Dann]

The booklet I have up at the moment is a single page (double side), Canadian Letter sized piece that goes in with the kits. Affectionately, it’s in the Table for Six format (two teams, A and B, participants 1 to 6). Files are available from my site

[Rob Oddi, CCMP, PMP]

i’ve done many sessions with 150 pp, 100 pls, and 120 ppl.
If you have tables of 6, people will breeze through the builds and shares.
You can easily do skillbuilding that is meaningful.
I’ll do a tower, then 30 sec per person share
then mod tower to represent something to do withthe city the meeting is taking place with or where they are from 45 secs each to share
then ask them to build a model of ___something related to their role/industry_____(you figure this out) and then after the table share, i give them 10 mins to share with as many ppl they can meet in the room (OMG people love this) you can see a clip from one of my recent sessions of this part here:

https://vimeo.com/robsvids/review/220672543/7a00b05bcf

then after that, i do ‘explain this’ as people looooove that one

in between all of them i teach them a bit of the research/science etc.

Rob

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