The best meetings or events are those where participants are actively participating: discussing with each other, sharing ideas and information, sharing opinions, and coming to joint conclusions. In many cases, this happens spontaneously; participants who are very interested in the theme or subject of a meeting, or who are interested in sharing what they have done, will immediately start talking to all others. But in many cases, such interaction only happens if a facilitator plays a very active role. She has to select participants carefully, and also provide background materials. She has to plan all sessions carefully. The use of different tools or techniques throughout the different sessions can help her have positive results. What follows are only a few tools:
CHAT SHOWS
Also known as a Talk Show, this is a useful tool for sharing knowledge from experts or influential persons, all of whom join the meeting or workshop as guests. It works in a similar way to a television talk show, with a host who interviews one or more guests, focusing on a pre-selected theme. This chat show is a great tool when there is the need to introduce new ideas and concepts that may face resistance.
LIGHTNING TALKS
Lightning Talks are a great way to efficiently introduce new projects or share new ideas. They are ideal for large conferences and workshops when you have many potential speakers but not much time to accommodate them in traditional presentation formats.
KNOWLEDGE FAIRS / INFORMATION MARKET
A Knowledge Fair is an event designed to showcase information about an organization or a topic. Also known as Share Fair, or an Information Market, it includes demonstrations, booths displaying information, exhibition boards, workshops, videos, informal corners, open spaces, etc., all of which provide opportunities for multiple parties to broadcast their achievements, exhibit their products, and market new programs to donors, policymakers, other institutes and potential partners. In sufficient space, participants present their work: this is what we do.
TROIKA CONSULTING
Part of the Liberating Structures collection, Troika Consulting helps people gain insights on issues they face and unleash local wisdom for addressing them. In quick round-robin "consultations", individuals ask for help and get advice immediately from two other participants. Peer-to-peer coaching helps discover everyday solutions, revealing patterns and refining prototypes.
TRIZ
In a similar way to the devil’s advocate, the focus here is on those activities that limit success in one way or another. After agreeing on a clear and concise objective (e.g. a project that would see the specific tool being used), participants are invited to list “the things you must do to make sure that you achieve the worst imaginable result with respect to your top strategy or objective”. Once the list is complete, they focus on those steps that are currently being taken and that resemble the points on the first list. At a third moment, the group discusses what would need to happen to prevent us from continuing with the activities or behaviours on the second list.