How to design a peer learning festival
A.k.a beautiful organised chaos
I recently hosted a large scale peer learning day in government. We hold it around twice a year, to give content design professionals the opportunity to showcase and share their work, and get to meet and learn from each other. It is called the ‘cross-government content conference’ or ConCon to give its snappier name.
260 people participated in the day. It had 32 sessions and was co-created and run by over 80 people. 80% of participants said they learned a new skill or technique, 86% said they saw or heard something inspiring and 90% rated the day a 7/10 or above.
Which is testament to the power of peer learning in a vibrant community of practice.
Principles behind the design of the day
Create a framework for people to fill
If you want people to take part, you need to have something they can visualise being part of. Create a blank schedule, have images of the venue, explain the type of thing that’s happened before. Ask them to identify where their ideas or project might fit in the framework (and be prepared to design something new depending on what you discover).
Design different types of opportunities for presenters to take part
Some people love standing on stage in front of an audience of hundreds. Some people are at their best in small conversations around a table. Some have big results to talk about, others have reflections on a personal learning journey. Having only one type of participation opportunity will limit the number of people and the type of knowledge that gets shared on the day. This time we had big talks, short talks, audience provocations, workshops, demos, and conversation stands.
Do the leg work
Now you have a framework, and an idea of the different ways people can take part, hit the road. Take sketches or visuals with you. Join team meetings, post online, make phone calls. Encourage people to share their work. And reassure them of the value of that. Once you know something and it become tacit knowledge, people often discount it as less valuable, or too obvious for others, but that is rarely the case.
Think of the learner experience
If the aim of the day is for people to learn, then consider the learner in everything. Can you let people self-direct and choose their own sessions? Do you have a mix of listening, discussion and hands-on? Are there enough breaks? But bear in mind what is and is not possible with this large scale format. It won’t be a perfect learner experience for all 260 people. Some won’t’ get their first choice of session, some will pick something that turns out to be a bit different than they imagined, someone might find it all too advance, or too basic. But it should be learner-focused over all.
Presenters are learners too
In a peer learning day such as this, they are part of the community. They may lead a session, and then participate in the next. They will gain a lot from organising their thoughts, creating materials and teaching or sharing with others.
Get the right balance between curation and openness
Curation is about support and encouragement and helping to frame and shape the content to make a schedule that reflects the community and has the most learning experiences over all. It’s not about doing a PR job to get the most polished content or the best speakers. If you are too strict about who can take part and what they can share then the bar is raised too high. People won’t hear the messy start of others learning journeys and they’ll likely be put off sharing anything themselves.
Include an outside perspective
This depends on the design of your day, and which community you are working with. But an outside perspective can be very helpful for people to reappraise their own knowledge. We’ve done this before by having speakers from other fields, inviting participants from other government professionals or an exhibition of industry examples.
Feed people well
Food and communities go hand in hand. No less so in workplace settings. Sharing platters, or healthy food pots. Tea and coffee. You may not have the budget for much, but a little can go a long way if you do it with care. And if you have no budget, then do it pot-luck style and ask everyone to bring something to share.
Set the tone
Remember the art of hosting. Welcome people as you mean to go on. Set some shared principles if necessary. This year, anyone who was new to the community wore a badge, and we asked everyone to extend a warm welcome if they saw them. Last year I reminded everyone to be encouraging of presenters who were brave enough to share their work with the community.
Make it look nice
Design matters, the environment matters. Try to take people out of the everyday experience and include some surprise and delight. Designing things well shows you have taken care and attention and will help with setting the tone.
Don’t underestimate how ‘designed’ networking needs to be
This one caught me out twice. Last time we had conversation cards to provoke discussion over lunch, and 55% of people said they’d keep in touch with someone they’d met. This time we had the ‘first timer’ badges to extend a welcome but no structured introductions and around 40% of people said they’d keep in touch with someone. The most common answer for why they wouldn’t is that they forgot to swap contact details! So thinking about how to tackle that next time…
Find a way for the community to build the space
Alongside the schedule, which should be a light framework filled with ideas from the community. Find other ways to design the space, so people recognise the community in it. This year, we asked people what value content designers add, and made posters from the results, to decorate the space. You could do something much more hands on in other situations, like groups that make their own furniture in a neighbourhood space.
Thank everyone
You may have done a lot of work, but it would be nothing without everyone else. Respect that, attribute it correctly and be grateful for all the support.
