Guide to Facilitating Bikebike Workshops

Introductions - in most workshops with more than 6 people in attendance, there may not be enough time for everyone in attendance to introduce themselves. We will provide nametags and encourage people to mark them with their name, pronoun(s) and, city.

Workshop Formats (often a mix)

Presentation - mostly the presenter giving their ideas, sometimes with a power point or audio visual aids. Lecture. Sometimes this is an appropriate way to start a workshop, but try to limit the amount of time you spend as bikebike is a participatory conference. -Speak from your experience & knowledge - not what you found on google -tell a story or sharing an experience is a good way to engage audience and make a point.

Group Discussion - open discussion where people share their experiences and ideas. Many bikebike workshops use this format. Have a list of specific questions or prompts to start discussion, but be willing to follow the lead of the group. In this format of workshop the role of the facilitator is to FACILITATE discussion by asking questions, summarizing, setting guidelines, keeping discussion relatively on point etc. While full go arounds can be useful in small groups, they may not be workable for larger groups.

Mechanical/Hands on - will take place in one of winnipeg's community bike shops. Remember that bikebike attendees have a range of bike mechanical experience from novice to expert. If your workshop is intended for beginners or experts, please note this in the description.

Panel discussion - A series of questions are asked to "experts" - the key to a good panel discussion is a good moderator with focused questions and a variety of viewpoints represented in panelists.

Activity/Challenge - In this format of workshop, participants are asked to solve a challenge, engage in a game, or role-play. This can be a difficult format to plan but is often memorable and rewarding for participants. This style of workshop typically uses the experiential cycle of experience->reflect->generalize->apply. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_learning

Ride - tour of notable or important locations in the area. Ex; Local community & school bike shops. Spots of historical or cultural significance relating in some way to the themes of the conference.

Other Info

Attendance Numbers - There are usually 4 workshops happening simultaneously. Attendance for each workshop is between 10-60 people. For large discussion or activity workshops, you might consider splitting people into smaller groups to allow for discussion.

If you have multiple facilitators-you may want to have someone co-facilitate your workshop, especially if it is a discussion based workshop. One person can keep discussion on track while the other takes stack

Room facilitator present to introduce presenter and topic, take notes, assist with AV

-translation? English with whisper translation available on request Predominantly Espanol Predominantly en Francais Fully multi-lingual - only certain workshops

Make a Plan Have a timeline and outline for your workshop. You don't have to follow it, but thinking in advance about what you want to cover and how much time to use in different areas will help people to get the most out of your workshop. In a discussion workshop, have a list of questions for the group. Think about what you will do if conflict begins to happen in the workshop, or if the discussion begins to go in an unanticipated direction. Neither of these things are inherently bad.

Be aware of the dynamics of privilege and anti-oppression -be aware if certain people are dominating the conversation and how facilitation could help this -this could include - having a speakers list, not allowing interruption, or making sure everyone has the opportunity to speak before allowing the same person to speak again.

 -asking people to communicate their ideas through a group or partner, rather than directly to group.