Sometimes designing a single session is as rewarding as designing a full-fledged 3-day conference.
This industrial company in the south of Germany wanted a management meeting like they had before the Covid restrictions: inspired, aligned and bonded their community of 330 managers. To produce the meeting, they contacted our client, a renowned internationally operating creative production agency. The program was rather easy to create, consisting of just every message the Board had to tell the crowd, plus a keynote. That was taking almost a full day. It needed to end with a series of 3 break-out sessions, in a rotating concept, piece of cake. No meeting designer needed, for the program. The only problem was to come up with an idea for those break outs. That is where we entered the arena.
As a designer, managing the energy of participants is a key element in any design you produce. This meeting was already packed with content, so it was immediately obvious that action was needed, physical action, not another extra lump of content to passively listen to.
The design for one of the 3 break-outs was this.
In a room packed with 110 flipcharts, the participants produced an individual symbol for how they saw themselves coaching their teams.
How they did that? In 5 logical steps, ending in drastically simplifying their sketch. One of the best? It looked like this one. For this particular manager it meant this: shining a light into the hearts of my team members.
I designed the session and facilitated it. And it was beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed the spirit of the groups, because I noticed how they were able to translate all they listened to into something that made sense for them personally. Fun, laughter, concentration and results. Isn’t that the ultimate reward for a good design?
And the room looked smashing. Thanks to the outstanding production company.
Munich, November 2022.
