Event Space KL: The Steps on Planning a Workshop

Lee Ju Yeon at our KL Eco City event space KL with a handheld flower bouquet

Lee Ju Yeon @vanessflower showing one of her signature flower bouquets during a workshop at our Eco City Event Space KL. Image credits to @blossom_m_florist

When done right, workshops in event space KL can provide plenty of value for everyone involved. When done wrong, participants will feel cheated as they didn’t learn what they intended to, wasting time and money.

The purpose of workshops is to conduct brainstorming exercises, build relationships, collaborate, and provide interactive learning.

Hence, it is essential to plan a workshop properly.

Event Space KL: The Steps

Define the Goals

Straightforward yet often forgotten.

What do you intend to achieve out of this workshop? Do you want to run some teambuilding exercises? Upskill your employees? Improve management skills for managers?

A clear goal allows you to focus your attention on a particular subject. Many workshops fall short of this by not having a clear goal in mind, rendering it pointless.

Decide Who Will Attend

Following from your goal, have the right crowd for the proper workshop. If you’re running a teambuilding exercise, your attendants will likely be internal employees only and won’t be inviting external parties. If you’re running say a certification class, you can afford to have a bigger class and dividing them into smaller groups.

Be very specific on your attendees by creating a list, but give yourself a bit of leeway for last-minute additions.

A row of boutiques on stands where students are being trained in the 2-day floral course at Colony's Event Space KL.

Teaching how to make a grand opening flower basket. Image credits to @blossom_m_florist.

Choose The Right Location

Pick the right venue for the right amount of attendees. You don’t need a stadium if you only have ten people attending.

Check out our article on factors to consider when choosing an event space KL.

Create an Agenda

So you now have a clear goal in mind, you know who your attendees will be, and you have an idea on which event space KL your workshop should be held.

Your next step is to develop an outline (AKA the agenda) to help achieve your workshop’s goal:

  • Create a timeline. How do you want your workshop to flow during the day?
  • Have the main points. What are the key aspects of discussions needed for the workshop? Have subpoints for further elaboration.
  • Visual aids. Most workshops often use a slide-pack such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote or Google Slides. Have those ready for your audience, discussing the main points of the workshop if it’s relevant to you.
  • Workshop activities. No workshop is complete without some form of a group activity or discussions. Otherwise, it’s not a workshop but a lecture session. Specify what sort of activity or discussion topic is most relevant to your workshop. Allocate time for each exercise, and ensure that your event space KL host has enough space for the sessions.

Develop a Follow-up plan

Measuring your workshop’s success is critical for future workshops. There’s always an aspect of your workshop that can be improved upon, even if it ran smoothly.

The best way to measure success is by following up with your attendees. Ask them (whether via questionnaire, e-mail or other communication methods that you prefer) for feedback on how it went. As a general rule, ask them:

What did you like about the workshop? What did you not like about the workshop? What do you think can be improved upon?

These three general questions will give you plenty of feedback from participants and let you know which areas to improve before your next workshop.

How you communicate AFTER the workshop also matters. Let people know that their hard work during the workshop mattered, whether it’s your team running the workshop or the attendants who participated.

Get People Involved

A workshop needs to have people involved to make it more memorable. Ideally, it would be good to get everyone involved in the workshop for it to be considered successful.

Find out what activities are best to facilitate involvement in your workshop. Each exercise will be different, based on the workshop you’re conducting.

A few general tips:

  • Don’t let group sizes be too big. This is to keep people in those groups comfortable talking and interacting. Groups of 5-6 are usually most common.
  • You will know which participants are more outspoken or reserved. Remember to let the more reserved ones speak their minds to get them more involved.
  • Do a mix! If you’re doing a teambuilding exercise, the best way to do it is by separating groups into random allocations. This pushes people to utilize their teamwork capabilities in unfamiliar environments.
  • Record ideas! It doesn’t matter if it’s from the trainer writing it on a whiteboard, or groups writing it on a large piece of paper. The purpose behind it is to share different opinions/ideas/solutions from various groups in the workshop.

Keep in mind, creating memorable group exercises will keep everyone interested and attentive during the day.

Check Out Our Event Space KL!

In the midst of Covid-19, we are offering virtual tours until the Movement Control Order has been lifted. Check out our webpage or contact us at +6016-4821319 if you’re interested in an event space KL!

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