how do you make a workshop fun

15 Ways to Make Your Courses and Workshops More Engaging

• 1. Relate the Lessons To Real-Life Scenarios ...
• 2. Accommodate Different Learning Styles ...
• 3. Change The Room Layout ...
• 4. Tell Stories Or Use Metaphors And Anecdotes ...
• 5. Play Music ...
• 6. Take the Workshop Outside ...
• 7. Make the Lessons Interactive ...
• 8. Make it Visual ...

Full Answer

How to run a successful workshop?

You need to be well and balanced to run a workshop. Take proper breaks, eat, hydrate, and protect your energy. 1. Make a decision before you leave the room A workshop will generate many ideas but your Decider needs to pick a course of action.

How can I Make my workshop more creative?

There are many different approaches to creativity. You might integrate exercises like drawing, painting, singing, music playing, or improv to loosen people up. Storytelling events are incredibly popular as well — so consider having attendees share their stories to make your workshop more intimate and impactful.

What are the best online workshop ideas for beginners?

For online workshop ideas, consider games that attendees can access via a shared link, like Scattergories or online bingo. 6. Tell a story Whatever you’re teaching, try to make it relatable to everyday life by using real examples, case studies, and creative metaphors.

How do I Make my workshop interactive?

Starting your workshop with a collaborative activity signals to your participants that the session will be interactive. It’s a great warm-up and way of introducing them to the interactive format. At the same time, people will often come to a workshop with points they want to discuss.

What are activities for workshops?

Group activitiesRiddle me this. Games like puzzles and trivia questions are a great way to keep workshop participants engaged throughout the workshop. ... Hypothetically speaking... ... Write a story together. ... Alignment Word Cloud. ... Conflict Mode Instrument. ... Group decision making analysis.

How do you engage people in a workshop?

Different people – different learning styles. To engage the room you have to keep in mind that people learn in different ways. ... Relevance. We can't expect participants to pay attention to a session that doesn't connect with them. ... Make it a dialogue. ... Tell a story. ... Gamify.

How do you lead an interactive workshop?

Introduction.Rule 1: Decide Whether an Interactive Workshop Is the Right Choice.Rule 2: Choose Participants Carefully.Rule 3: Identify Suitable Activities.Rule 4: Identify Facilitators and Brief Them.Rule 5: Consider Logistics, Facilities, and How to Record Outcomes.Rule 6: Plan the Agenda.More items...•

How do you host a good workshop?

How do you conduct a workshop?Consider your topic. ... Consider your audience. ... Consider the workshop size. ... Consider the time available. ... Vary activities. ... Vary the seriousness of the material. ... Plan a break. ... Participants need time to talk and connect with one another.More items...

How do you increase participation in a workshop?

7 Tips for Increasing Participation in Your Workshop (3 in 3-part...The Interview. Interviewing another person is a great way to increase listening skills and empathy. ... Free Write. ... Anonymous Questions or Comments. ... Heat Mapping. ... The Magic Wand. ... Taking a Break. ... Design Sprint.

What makes a good online workshop?

The very first thing that participants want to know when they join your session is what's in it for them. Use questions, powerful quotes, videos, the beginning of a story, something mysterious, anything that will make them want to see and hear more. Keep selling. It's not enough simply engage people at the beginning.

What is a participatory workshop?

A participatory interactive workshop involves you and other participants working actively towards a particular objective: to learn something that will be new for the participants. You will engage in discussion and in collaborative activities that enable you to explore a specific topic.

What does workshop mean?

1 : a small establishment where manufacturing or handicrafts are carried on. 2 : workroom. 3 : a usually brief intensive educational program for a relatively small group of people that focuses especially on techniques and skills in a particular field.

What makes a workshop successful?

Getting everyone involved is key to a successful workshop. If you stand up and talk for three hours, you're just giving a lecture – not facilitating a workshop. Everyone needs to participate. Creating group exercises is different for each workshop.

How do I become a good workshop facilitator?

Your job as a facilitator is to be an expert in the process, not in the content. If you don't know something related to the content of the workshop, don't be afraid to say so. Suggest a process or activity that can help the group answer the question at hand. Avoid giving advice.

How long should a workshop last?

A full-day training day can be the ideal time frame for the majority of courses given that this allows plenty of time to cover the key concepts, allows for interactive practice sessions, and to wrap up the training day. Introductory courses are especially suited to one-day programs.

How do I host an online workshop?

How to run an online workshopDecide on your workshop topic.Plan and create the content.Choose the right platform.Decide whether you'll charge for your workshop or offer it for free.Promote your workshop.Collect registrations/applications.Get contact information.Schedule the workshop.More items...•

How do you make an online seminar interactive?

5 ways to make online learning more interactiveAsk for feedback. Any chance the learners have to leave feedback is a great opportunity for interaction. ... Let people choose the way. ... Make it social. ... Invite learners to contribute. ... Encourage peer evaluation.

How do you plan an online workshop?

What Are the Steps to Planning and Running Effective Virtual Workshops?Define the key objective or challenge of the workshop: ... Design each virtual workshop exercise with a clear goal: ... Develop the content: ... Deliver the workshop: ... Document the workshop outputs/feedback:

What happens in an online workshop?

A virtual workshop is an interactive session or learning experience taught over a video conferencing tool that can be accommodated by a variety of different visual collaboration programs. The remote nature of these conferences can be intimidating, feeling impersonal, and out of touch.

What is virtual workshop?

A virtual workshop can even include breakout groups or teams to allow attendees to discuss topics or play games in smaller, more intimate numbers.

How are training rooms laid out?

Training rooms are often laid out in the same way – rows of tables and chairs. Challenge the convention and surprise your attendees by perhaps providing beanbags instead of chairs, standing podium tables, or tables with just a few chairs to encourage small groups.

What are some games that attendees can access via a shared link?

For online workshop ideas, consider games that attendees can access via a shared link, like Scattergories or online bingo.

How to get attendees energized during a session?

Music can set the mood and get attendees energized before your session and during breaks. Play something upbeat to pump them up, and lower it back down to let them know it’s time to start.

How to keep attendees focused?

Need to keep your attendees focused? Tap into their competitive sides. Puzzles or riddles, crosswords, memory games, ordering tasks — all are great ways to keep your attendees engaged and on-task. For added drama, impose a time limit.

How to create an inclusive learning environment?

To create an inclusive learning environment, try to combine traditional teaching methods with audio and visual presentations, written handouts, interactive tasks, and group work. For example, you could start off your workshop with a quick PowerPoint, but then move into a clip from a relevant podcast. Later, you could have attendees draw short comics based on what they have learned and ask a few to present their comics to the rest of the group.

What can you use to help people concentrate?

You can also use music during the session – soothing classical pieces help people concentrate while completing tasks or group work.

How to make a workshop effective?

But to make your workshop most effective, you need to go beyond basic education and think about inspiration. Your workshop may be a part of a greater event like a business conference, or an independent class that’s open to the community. The subject matter could be academic, professional, personal, creative, or even parental.

What do workshops require?

To reach their full potential, workshops require vision and imagination. Here’s how to create a workshop plan that leaves participants not just educated, but also motivated.

Why do we use creative exercises in workshops?

Regardless of your workshop theme, creative exercises can unlock growth and the potential for out-of-the-box ideas. Infusing workshops with creative play inspires innovation in business and beyond. And — perhaps most importantly — it makes your workshop more fun.

What are some creative ways to engage people?

There are many different approaches to creativity. You might integrate exercises like drawing, painting, singing, music playing, or improv to loosen people up. Storytelling events are incredibly popular as well — so consider having attendees share their stories to make your workshop more intimate and impactful.

How to brainstorm ideas for workshops?

One of the best ways to brainstorm inventive workshop plans is simple: ask people what they want to do. You might already have an audience in mind. Reach out to them to find out what they’re interested in and what they haven’t seen before.

How to warm up participants in a workshop?

As you create your workshop, make sure to incorporate activities that involve participants to the fullest extent. Icebreakers, group exercises, and speed-networking activities are all effective ways to warm people up. While workshops are typically small affairs, you can make them even more intimate by breaking participants into pairs or small groups to communicate, create, and cooperate.

How to encourage people to participate in a group?

Encourage total participation, even from shy attendees. For those who don’t like to speak up in a group, consider using real-time polling apps like Sli.do to encourage people to ask questions and answer prompts from their mobile devices. And always factor in time for feedback at the end, even if it means a follow-up email survey.

What to ask your team at the end of a workshop?

This might not be your favourite part of the workshopping process but it’s extremely valuable. Ask your team what they found useful, what they enjoyed, and what could be improved. If they have any juice left, you can do this at the end of the workshop; otherwise, email out a short form the next day.

What is a workshop?

A workshop is an insanely fun and productive way to solve problems together. It creates momentum and makes work genuinely exciting again. And in more concrete terms, a workshop is a structured and fair way to collaborate, accelerate work, and create a clear outcome. Let’s unpack that, shall we?

What to do if you don't want to lose people to the kitchen?

b. If you don’t want to lose people to the kitchen or the coffee machine, make sure there are refreshments in the room: water, tea, coffee, snacks . If it’s a day-long or multi-day workshop, plan for a light lunch (not food coma).

What to do when the outcome turns out to be?

a. Whatever the outcome turned out to be, someone will have to make it happen. Discuss what’s been agreed, list out the resulting tasks and assign them with clear deadlines. This doesn’t need to happen in the room: it might be a quick call followed by a group email.

How many people are needed for a workshop?

Figure out who needs to be in the room: we recommend 7 people or fewer. Depending on the scope of your workshop, you might not need everyone on this list.

Can you make a lot of progress in a workshop?

You can make a LOT of progress with a single workshop, but you won’t walk away with a ready and working solution. However, a series of workshops can take you there, and you WILL have a handful of good, solid ideas even after the first one.

What is a workshop?

A workshop is for when you need to discover solutions and explore ideas with other people. You really want to hear what they have to say. Workshops are more dynamic, and they’re messy.

What is workshop preparation?

The workshop preparation stage is a real design process. You’re thinking about the function, the form, and designing the experience for your participants.

Why is a workshop messy?

This is meant to happen! Workshops are meant to be messy. It’s the result of asking good questions and encouraging lots of ideas from diverse personalities.

What does it mean to start a workshop with a collaborative activity?

Starting your workshop with a collaborative activity signals to your participants that the session will be interactive. It’s a great warm-up and way of introducing them to the interactive format.

What is follow up in a workshop?

Follow-up: incorporating the content from the workshop into your project and ensuring there’s momentum and progress.

How many stages are there in a workshop?

The key is to think of workshops as a three-stage process, each with equal importance. It’s easy to place emphasis on the actual event, but that’s only the middle piece. The day of the workshop should be seen as a means to an end, not the end itself.

Why is it important to run workshops?

The ability to run great workshops is becoming an essential skill for anyone that works in creativity and innovation. The difference between an effective workshop and an unsuccessful one has a major impact on the success of an overall project — the quality of ideas generated, an engaged team, and even whether participants felt they had the opportunity to contribute.