Designing facilitation for a knowledge share fair: practical steps

Authors

  • Sophie Carole Treinen
  • Kristin Kolshus
  • Frédérique Matras
  • Alice van der Elstraeten

Keywords:

share fairs, facilitation, event design,

Abstract

Share fairs are an excellent opportunity to foster informal networking and problem solving, to bring the concept of knowledge sharing to life, and to show participants what is being done to share knowledge. The goal of the share fair can be to highlight the unspoken, to detect tacit knowledge and know-how: what might be evident for those who are used to a certain practice, but unknown for others. The share fair itself is normally a blended selection of several different sessions. As much as possible, sessions should be facilitated using knowledge sharing approaches, which can take many different forms such as interactive discussions, brainstorming, mapping, interviews, fish bowl, or world café. This article describes the process of designing and selecting a good mix of knowledge sharing approaches and processes to support knowledge exchange and over-arching goals, as used for several share fair events from 2009 to 2013. It outlines the work done with and by the facilitators to elicit good practices and lessons learned as part of the sessions, presentations and discussions. The article also covers how the session design encompassed intercultural considerations, local context and how approaches were adapted at short notice to accommodate changing circumstances.

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Published

2015-02-03

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