How to engage and empower participants or students
in a way that promotes their learning and creates value?

How to transform meetings, events, workshops or classes
in constructive environments where co-creation and
collaborative problem resolution flourishes?

During the three day training you will

• internalize the paradigm shift from predict and control to sense and respond to become comfortable with letting go and trusting the system.
• learn how to engage the potential of the people present and channel it in the creation of value.  
• learn to organize and facilitate a co-creative forum or “unconference”.
• learn to set up and facilitate a booth or topic station at any kind of meeting.

The training is experiential and practical. You will learn by observing, practicing, giving and receiving feedback, and reflecting.

By the end of the training you will have

• designed the agenda for a meeting, project or conference.
• reflected on how to generate an environment that inspires trust and safety, and promotes co-creation.
• reflected about the facilitator’s role.
• practiced facilitation skills such as listening attentively, formulating activating questions, questioning and integrating multiple perspectives as they arise.
• facilitated a brainstorming session.
• produced prototypes.
• dealt with disruptive participant attitudes.
• practiced how to make thinking visible and helping other people download their ideas.
• practiced pitching.
• experienced participating in an “unconference”.
• set up a collaborative learning environment and a productive workstation.

The facilitator is Karen Maeyens, director of Ongoing Learning at UFM and lead facilitator with years of facilitation and teaching practice.

Please bring with you the idea or outline of a specific meeting, event, or conference you are hosting, organizing, participating in, planning to have, or would like to organize at some point. During the workshop you will get a chance to apply your learning to your specific project. 

Practical information:
When? 3 days during the month of May, a total of 22 hours:  

• Thursday 23: 8:30 a. m. – 4:00 p. m. 
• Friday 24: 8:30 a. m. – 4:00 p. m. 
• Saturday 25:  8:00 a. m. – 3:00 p. m.

Where? Universidad Francisco Marroquín

For questions please reach out to formacioncontinua@ufm.edu.

About the format of the unconference:
The unconference we practice is an innovative and nontraditional format for co-creation, developed by UFM. Its guidelines are based on the principles of self-organization. The format is designed to engage all participants in an environment that exhilarates and challenges, and that focuses energy on how to achieve the previously defined desired outcomes of the event. It unleashes the huge amount of the participants’ knowledge, experience, commitment and involvement and allows for creating value synergically, leaving no potential untapped. The format is highly dynamic and flexible, able to sense and respond to challenges and opportunities as they arise during the event. This Antigua Forum video may help clarify your understanding of the format.

What our participants say about the training:

Don’t miss our Facilitating Co-Creation Training summary video!

My experience at the training was AMAZING! This was my 2nd training session but my 1st session I was part of the admin team responsible for the logistics and therefore not able to fully focus on the training itself. This time, I was able to really focus and immerse myself in the training, the process, and absorb all of the info and techniques. We had very skilled and knowledgeable instructors and a very open and willing group of trainees which made the environment comfortable and trusting from the start. I found that the days seemed to fly by because they were both well-organized and full of fun, energy, excitement, creativity, and thought-provoking conversations. I learned SO much and am eager to put my facilitator skills to use in a variety of ways.
– Jennifer Briggs,  Creative Manager at the School of Innovation, Texas A&M

 

The ice breakers were excellent. The interaction within the group was superb. The learning was facilitated by the exceptional attention given to details.  Having a printed copy of the material was very useful. The facilitator was excellent. The tool is just goooood. Lunch time was a great opportunity to share and to get great conversations going and flowing.
– Ingrid Klanderud, Board of Directors, Museo Popol Vuh, UFM

 

The training was very exciting and gratifying. I have always been in touch with the UFM practices and with this training I found out all the hard work behind. I highly appreciate the improv techniques, I will use them in class. I also enjoyed the gallery of ideas and clustering to take advantage of the brainstorming.
– Tatiana Macias, Economics professor, Universidad San Francisco de Quito