WTF is a ‘thinkathon’?
Stand in another person’s shoes and see how an idea looks from there. You’ll be surprised at the clarity that this can produce. The outcomes of a Thinkathon relate to the breadth of experience in the room – and the ability to think openly. We work towards finding solutions. We help you think sideways about what you are trying to do – or even why you need to do it.
The Process
We’ll arrange a 30 minute call to discuss how a Thinkathon can jump start your project, program or product. Once you’ve decided that it’s for you, we’ll get to work putting together a personalized agenda. Meanwhile, you invite the thinkers from your organization who should be in the room. The group will define problems and areas of focus. We will ask hard questions, capturing the outputs both visually and in text form.
Thinkathons last between 4 and 6 hours. To keep energy levels up, we recommend providing nibbly snacks. M&Ms, grapes, peanuts — treats easily eaten while thinking and talking are ideal. We return to this familiar situation with new eyes each time. These journeys, with their twists and turns, have changed the way we see our work.
In the end
What often happens is that we start off in one place, then move to another. We head off at tangents and down rabbit holes, and then back to where we started from.
We think out loud. We will package up what was captured during the day into actionable next steps.
Our creds
We’ve run similar participatory events for Greenpeace, Mozilla, Telefonica, Creative Commons, NCS, City & Guilds, Jisc and more. We’re practiced creative facilitators, educators, technologists and, most importantly, open advocates.
