Andrew Smith Life Events is an eclectic people-business, offering a range of services, including facilitation, training and interpretive story-telling

Group workshop Facilitation

Are you a leader of a community group or small business  looking for assistance with strategic planning, exploring a range of key issues, understanding your stakeholders and customers better or developing stronger partnerships for action?

The best ideas and most workable solutions come from collaboration between people who share a desire to succeed, and have a passion for what they are doing.

Facilitated workshops provide a framework and processes that encourage the input of many ideas and many perspectives and then focuses decisions, and builds commitment.

There are a hundred right answers to work with. The trick is to choose and agree on the one right answer that your group will commit to and take forward. 

EXPERIENCED AND KNOWLEDGEABLE

Andrew has 30 years of group facilitation experience gained within government and the community sectors.

A variety of group facilitation techniques and approaches are utilised, providing opportunities for participation and input, quality evaluation and strong commitment from participants.

Strategic planning workshop

If you don’t know where you are going, you won’t know when you are lost, or when you have arrived.

Facilitated group workshops are an excellent way of involving the members of your organisation in setting a vision, strategies and actions, in a Strategic Plan framework. Participation draws on the combined experience and ideas of your members to generate high quality outcomes, builds consensus and strengthens commitment and ownership of the agreed directions and actions. Possible formats range from small groups to large Open Space conference forums.

Community engagement planning workshop

Have you ever clearly defined who your customers, stakeholders and shareholders are? Who should you engage with to ensure your success? What are the best methods of engaging with your community to build resilient, mutually beneficial relationships, loyal customers, supportive advocates and partners?

Andrew Smith has extensive experience in stakeholder/community engagement planning, using an original process to identify customers, stakeholders and shareholders, current relationships, desired relationships, engagement priorities and effective engagement techniques. If you want to better understand the relationships you have as an organisation, and how to build and support those relationships, this process will be of immense help.

group workshop Facilitation FEES

Costs vary depending on the nature of the service. When we meet we can talk about your needs and then construct a process that will help you and your participants find the answers.

As a guide -

  • Full day workshop including preparation : $2000.

  • Writing up outcomes of workshops: $80 per hour.

  • Travel: $1 per kilometre from Lewisham

  • Overnight accommodation if necessary: actual cost plus 50%

  • Meals: no fee

Special rates available for not-for-profit and community organisations

Venue is up to you. I will travel to your chosen location.

I recommend that you choose a convenient location for your participants, away from the distractions of the workplace.

Professional development courses

Community engagement planning - principles and processes

This one day course covers the principles of effective engagement and the process of engagement planning - analysing your relationships with stakeholders, shareholders and customers, and determining appropriate engagement methods.

Not all stakeholders are the same, and in fact not all of those interested or impacted by your decisions are stakeholders. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to working with your communities-of-interest. Engaging with communities-of-interest needs a deeper and more finessed understanding of relationships in order to develop the most effective ways of engaging with them.

Engagement planning identifies communities with a stake in what you are doing, defines your current and preferred relationship, identifies priorities for engagement and levels of engagement, and then identifies the engagement techniques to use for each community. This unit will enable you to lead engagement planning processes within your organisation.

Collaborative workshop facilitation techniques

This one day course provides an introduction to the techniques of facilitating collaborative workshops with your staff, your community, and other Agencies. Collaborative workshops draw on the varied perspectives, ideas, expertise and experience of participants to define shared goals and generate shared commitment to action. Whether it is with your immediate work group, or with external partners, better decisions can be made that have the full commitment of those involved. Collaboration recognises the value of the input of others in identifying issues, sharing responsibility for defining solutions and for implementing actions. As a workshop facilitator you will provide the framework and processes for participation, guiding participants towards consensus and commitment. This course will give you the knowledge, skills and techniques to be a workshop facilitator and lead collaborative workshops in your organisation.

Creating sustained behaviours

This one day course is an introduction to the principles and practice of social marketing to encourage and support sustained behaviour change. Using the ITSAS* framework, we will cover defining behaviours and barriers, Planned Behaviour Theory, The 4Rs, cognitive dissonance and Community-based Social Marketing (CBSM)**, as key drivers towards sustained desirable behaviours.

* Intention to act, Trial of behaviour, Satisfaction, Attitude alignment, Sustained behaviour

** CBSM is a planning process developed by Doug MacKensie-Mohr, that particularly focuses on creating behaviours that are beneficial for sustainability and that are sustained. Doug is based in Canada and regularly provides courses in CBSM in Australia. It is highly recommended that those who want to explore this approach in greater depth, attend one of Doug’s courses.

professional development course FEES

Courses can be booked separately, however it is recommended that people who work in community engagement roles book for all three courses. Dates are flexible to meet the needs of your organisation.

  • Fee for a one-day course $200 per person, (minimum 10 maximum 15)

  • Fee for person attending two one-day courses $350

  • Fee for person attending three one-day courses - $450

  • Travel: $1 per kilometre from Lewisham

  • Overnight accommodation if necessary: actual cost plus 50%

  • Meals: no fee

    Venue is up to you. I will travel to your chosen location.

    I recommend that you choose a convenient location for your participants, away from the distractions of the workplace.

Interpretive story-telling

Do you manage a natural or cultural site and need a way to help visitors to understand its natural and cultural values and importance?

Story-telling, sometimes called interpretation, provides a doorway to experiencing and understanding new places. It goes beyond simple presentation of information on signs and panels – instead aiming to provide an experience that inspires imagination, thoughtfulness and curiosity resulting in visitors retaining their understanding for longer, having generated genuine memories of place. Some stories can even be told without words.

The service can include any or all of the following:

  • development of a Storytelling Plan

    • defining the audiences

    • developing concepts, themes, messages and stories

    • linking themes, messages and stories to place and experiences

    • defining visual presentation style and methodology.

  • project management - implementing the Storytelling Plan

    • story content writing

    • visual design

    • fabrication

    • installation.

      Note: some elements of a full project may be sub-contracted to specialists, and will be incorporated into the overall fee and quote.

Written quote provided, following initial meeting.