Workshops
I have been involved in running and designing interactive user groups, collaborative problem solving and training workshops for many years across a wide range of situations.
I’ve always taken the view that participating in workshops is not easy, most attendees will be nervous about sharing their ideas in front of people they may not know and in the telecommunications sector they are often using their second language. This attendee view is at the forefront of the design and facilitation process to create relaxed, engaging discussions which bring out real creativity and real insights. Of course there is always a business purpose to be served by the activity and a key part of the process is to keep focus on the purpose and ensure usable results, by constantly drawing out key points, guiding the conversation back to the principal subject, and ensuring everybody stays engaged.
Through my involvement with the TM Forum I have run a range of successful workshops and write ups and videos of these can be seen on their website, and sometimes referenced in my blog.
Conferences
I have attended and spoken at many conferences over the years, and had a lot of opportunities to observe what makes a good chairperson and panel facilitator. I myself have been privileged to chair many conference tracks and panels and tried to bring all I have learned to those opportunities.
My strategy is to actively chair and try and guide and focus the discussion. Sometimes a panel speaker will give quite a complex answer to a question, the simple act by the chair of playing back one or two points to the speaker to check we have all understood can transform the audience engagement.
Webinars
Webinars are becoming an increasingly important tool for marketing, and can be a highly effective method for generating well qualified leads. A webinar that is just a recorded presentation will have far less impact than one that is designed and thought through with the specific advantages and challenges of the channel in mind. You can see and hear some examples of webinars I have hosted on the TM Forum website, what will not be so visible is the hours of preparation that go into many of these.