Re-Imagining the live workshop: how to create a powerful, in-person experience

The benefits of online training are clear: it's accessible, affordable and convenient. But with all its benefits come challenges. One of the biggest is that online training doesn't have the same in-person experience as traditional workshops. That means if your organisation is serious about building a successful workshop experience, you’ll need to reimagine how it does so. This article explores how a reimagined workshop can be more effective than ever before, from recruiting participants to questions answered afterward.

What is a successful workshop?

Successful workshops provide a wide range of benefits to participants, including:

• Increased job performance: Workshop attendees typically see increased confidence, motivation, and improved job performance after participating in a successful workshop.
• Increased team effectiveness: Participants report increased team effectiveness after attending workshops. They discuss how they learned new skills, what they've accomplished, and how they've grown as individuals.
• Increased engagement: Participants may also report increased engagement with their jobs and increased satisfaction with their lives.

Recruit participants

This is the most critical step for any workshop. To ensure success, first, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• Who do we want to participate?
• Why do we want them to participate?
• How will we select participants?
• What will we do with participants once they’re there?

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Next, you will need to reach out to potential participants. While there are many ways to do this, we recommend two basic and effective methods. Which method you choose depends on your unique needs.

• A/B testing: This method uses an online platform to send different messages to different groups of people. This can save you a lot of time if you’re trying to reach a specific demographic.
• Push notifications: Using push notifications allows you to send reminders to potential participants as they’re logged into their accounts.

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Create an outline for the workshop

After you select your participants, you’ll have a much clearer vision of what the workshop will include. This will help you create a detailed outline of the workshop content. Here are a couple of questions to help you flesh out that outline:

• What is the workshop about?
• What will we do in the workshop?
• What will we cover in the workshop?
• What are some key takeaways for our attendees to leave with?
• What will we practice and reinforce?
• Why do we want to practice and reinforce these skills?

With all these details in mind, it’s time to create a detailed outline of the workshop content. At the very least, you’ll want an outline that includes the following:

• How will participants learn?
• What will participants practice and reinforce?
• What is the timeline for each activity?

Don’t forget wrap-up activities

In addition to the detailed outline of the workshop content, you will also want to create an outline of the wrap-up activities. This will help you create a smooth and exciting end to the workshop experience. It can also help you close the workshop experience on a positive note.

• What are the participants’ takeaways from the workshop?
• How can we celebrate these successes together?
• What do we learn from this experience?
• What is the next step for participants?

Bottom line

With the right approach, the right instructor and a bit of planning, in-person workshops can be a powerful tool. Now it’s time to reimagine how you approach the training experience and try moving away from all the online training (even if it's just once in a while).