Developing a sustainable workshop concept for international conference

The semester is coming to an end and during the autumn our project team has been working on the Sustainable Workshop Concept for International Conference project and participating in the International E-health Conference. The client for our project is Laura Tahvanainen and Outi Ahonen. Our project team consists of seven students and our supervisor is Marja Isokangas.

Our project started at the end of August, after which we were immediately introduced to the facilitators, whose help we were in five different workshops at the E-health conference in October. At the meeting, the facilitators gave us more detailed information about their workshops so that we could best prepare for and help with them.  Helping the facilitators was not our only task in the workshops, but we also had the task of observing the workshops to be able to develop the workshop concept in the best possible way. Preparation for the workshops included obtaining and printing the necessary materials, and we also visited the Laurea Tikkurila campus, where the E-health conference was held, the week before the conference. We visited the campus and the facilities where the workshops were held and filmed a video guide for the facilitators on arrival at the campus.

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On the day of the event, we arrived and started to make the preparations according to the facilitators’ wishes. In the classrooms, for example, we arranged tables and chairs into groups more suited to the World Café method and distributed the tools we had ordered in advance for the workshops, such as pens and Post-it notes. Once the necessary preparations had been made and the signposts were in place, some of our team directed people to the right rooms so that the workshops could start on time. We had a tight schedule for the arrival of the participants, as we only had an hour for the workshops. So, we had to be efficient, and our team did that very well. We had set up a good and clearly understandable timetable for who would do what and when.

Once the workshops started, our job as facilitators began. We took care of the time and made sure that all the activities fit into a predefined hour. As the schedule was tight, it was important for us to keep track of what was happening in the workshops. At the same time, we made observations on how the workshops could be improved in the future. A common finding of our team was that more time needs to be set aside for the workshop and guidance.

Overall, the day went well. Despite the hectic and tight schedule. Our team performed well. We made a survey about the workshop and asked the participants to answer it. We received good feedback from the event and also good ideas on how to improve the workshops. It was nice to see that the participants actively engaged in discussions and activities in the workshops.

Mila Ruusuvirta & Sofia Pohjaranta

Suurin osa Showcasen blogeista on toteutettu osana Laurean opintojaksoja. Koko koulutustarjontaamme voi tutustua nettisivuillamme. Tarjoamme kymmenien tutkintoon johtavien koulutuksien lisäksi myös paljon täydennys- ja erikoistumiskoulutuksia sekä yksittäisiä opintojaksoja avoimen AMK:n kautta!

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