Welcome to the Facilitation Shindig – a space for Practitioners who facilitate team and group conversations to expand and improve their practice, since 2017.
The Shindig experience is about taking seriously the art and the craft of facilitation, developing your own practice through discussion, storytelling, experimentation and action.
Throughout May we are running taster sessions and Online Shindigs.
Why “Shindig?”
If you are asking yourself:
- How do I offer connected, enjoyable and effective participant experiences in the Covid-19/ Lockdown world?
- Which parts of my face-to-face practice still work in virtual spaces & which bits just don’t?
- Where can I take some time out to think about what more or different I can do in a digital space?
- Where can I find and connect with others in my situation in lockdown?
…the Shindig offers a place to experiment with these questions. Along with other facilitators and practitioners, from a range of backgrounds and experiences, you’ll have the opportunity to try out ideas and put real practice into play.
At a Shindig Event you are invited to “rattle the foundations” of your current practice -try new things, re-think old things, reflect and take action.
And joy… you sign up for a Shindig for the the joy of doing good work, with people who challenge and support you. You get to fail fast and happy, with people who will pick the bits up and suggest reconfigurations.
Who is this for?
Practitioners who regularly work with (or are beginning to regularly work with) groups/ teams online and who are serious about developing their craft.
Practitioners who want to push the edges of their practice, experimenting with techniques and learning from others.
Facilitators who love the art of bringing people together to create difference and who want to support their personal and professional development in a challenging-yet-safe space.
Can you give me an example of what you cover?
Every Shindig is partially-structured, with space for participants to bring their own idea, issue or experiment, so each Shindig is different.
In response to the Lockdown, the first Virtual Shindig was run in April 2020. At the event, alumni from London, Manchester and Edinburgh came together to figure out how to facilitate the types of digital/ virtual experiences which don’t have certain outcomes. (such as Business planning sessions, team building sessions etc, rather than fairly structured webinars or online learning).
Some the things we covered:
- Break out room experiments ( swapping, bombing, chat capture, thought capture)
- Experience of using of multiple platforms at once
- Experience of using semi-structured virtual Whiteboards
- User (and facilitator) experience of new platforms & new functionality
- Discussion around digital design issues/ opportunities in a non face-to-face space
- Use of movement and coaching as part of a session
We are running taster sessions ( 2 hr experience) and online Shindigs (4 hr sessions) throughout May.