Facilitation

What is facilitation?

Facilitation is a word many have heard of but few fully understand. It’s easy to think that facilitation is just about coloured Post-it™ notes decorating an office wall but it’s so much more than that (and may not include them at all!). Meetings, Workshops, Consultations and Conferences are an expensive business. A great facilitator can save you both time and money. Do you want to optimise the engagement, input and outcomes whilst minimising the cost? As a facilitator, that’s what you hire me for.

Engagement events and consultation

With an increase in partnership and collaborative working relationships workshops and consultations are a great way of engaging and hearing the views of lots of people – in theory.

In practice they can often rapidly turn into an expensive whinge-fest or an opportunity for the person with the loudest voice to be heard – again and again and again! This can be scary and difficult to handle, particularly when everyone else in the room expects you to deal with it and you risk it just becoming an expensive embarrassment. Does that sound familiar? If so and you have been tasked with organising a consultation or workshop why not give me a ring for an informal discussion about your workshop or consultation meeting and we can talk about how my facilitation skills could support and help you so that your event runs smoothly and you can relax! 

 

Conferences

I can also provide coaching and training for presenters or facilitation skills for workshop members

 

A timely and well delivered conference can reap enormous rewards including increased networking and relationship building, industry knowledge, show-casing new research and products. BUT with increased financial and work-place pressures it has never been more important to ensure that your conference is well facilitated. As a trained facilitator I can work with you right from the initial planning stage to help you clarify your programme, maximise delegate enjoyment, networking and engagement, troubleshoot and achieve your desired outcomes. The goal of my facilitation is to hold things together so that all runs smoothly and you can focus on business – in fact the facilitator role is often referred to as the glue of a successful conference. I always provide a tailored approach to meet your needs so why not give me a ring to see how I can help? 

 Here are some other examples of when expert facilitation can ensure best outcomes for you:
• Visioning and innovation workshops
• Strategic planning meetings
• Board blue sky thinking events
• Conferences
• Public consultation events
• Consumer focus groups
• Project or service reviews
• Annual General Meetings
• Partnership and steering group meetings

I always offer a great welcome to ensure that all attendees feel valued and comfortable to input their views. I am described as having a unique ability to put everyone at ease. Although organised and professional in my approach I remain flexible to go with the flow and needs of the group and know when to challenge and how to keep things to time and task. I bring a wide range of techniques and creative tools to maintain interest and to achieve the outcomes required.