Designing and Facilitating Workshops

Designing and Facilitating Workshops

Gain skills and techniques for successful workshop preparation and group facilitation.

📅 Dates: Wednesdays in March 2026.
⌛ Format & Duration: 4 x 3-hour sessions, once a week.
💻 Delivery Mode: Online  (interactive sessions with small group practice)
📈 Co-Design Maturity Model Level: Understand/Apply

📜 About this training

Workshops are at the heart of design and innovation, bringing a range of people together to share experiences and ideas in real-time. There’s more to co-design than workshops, but getting workshops right can make or break your project.

The success of your workshop hinges on the preparation and facilitation you bring to the table—with most of the work happening long before participants gather together.

Designing and Facilitating Workshops is a short training program that covers the foundational skills and techniques needed to deliver an engaging workshop.

This is a framework-based, experiential learning program that focuses on developing adaptable facilitation and design skills. You’ll learn flexible approaches that you can tailor to your specific context, supported by practical examples and hands-on practice opportunities.

Why do this course?

This course helps grow confidence in planning and facilitating workshops, empowering you to be more effective, inclusive, and impactful in how you engage with colleagues, clients or community members.

What you’ll gain:

• Practical frameworks for planning design engagements

• Confidence in your facilitation approach through guided practice

• Understanding of different facilitation styles and when to use them

• Access to adaptable resources and real-world examples

How is it delivered? A series of four online training sessions with 10-22 participants, delivered once a week.

Part 1: Preparation for Effective Workshops

• Understand the importance of preparing for workshops.

• Learn a simple and adaptable framework for planning co-design engagements.

• Discover best practices for inviting and preparing participants for design and research activities.

Part 2: Group Facilitation Skills

• Develop key guidelines for creating safe and inspiring environments.

• Recognise different styles of facilitation and engagement.

• Explore skills to foster creativity, dialogue and collective decision-making.

Part 3: Workshop Tools, Techniques and Formats

• Identify key considerations for in-person and online group facilitation.

• Dive into platforms, tools and techniques for remote and virtual facilitation.

• Experience and practise productive ways to generate and review ideas.

Part 4: Facilitating Remote Engagement

• Understand the pros and cons of asynchronous collaboration and digital tools.

• Identify benefits and roles of co-facilitation.

• Experience and practise creating safe and inspiring online environments.

Who is leading this?

This program is delivered by Dr Emma Blomkamp, who brings extensive experience in systems-aware co-design and capability building, creating safe and engaging spaces for professional development.

Is this course for me?

✅ It is for you if you:

• want to facilitate workshops for any sort of research, design or innovation purpose (focuses on co-design but applicable broadly).

• are ready to practise your facilitation skills in a safe, small group environment.

• can attend at least three of the 3-hour online training sessions.

• are willing to engage in interactive, experiential learning.

• can allow an additional 20 minutes per week for preparation and application activities.

❌ It is not for you if you:

• only want to learn theory or observe others (this training is interactive and requires active participation)

• are looking for prescriptive, one-size-fits-all templates or “silver bullet” solutions

• aren't able to attend most sessions or don't have a reliable internet connection

• prefer purely lecture-based learning without group activities

• expect to learn everything about co-design or facilitation from this course alone.

📆 2026 Schedule

The next course consists of four online training sessions, at a time designed to suit participants in Australia, NZ, Asia and the Americas:

10am-1pm AEDT (Melbourne/Sydney) on Wednesdays, 4 Mar, 11 Mar, 18 Mar and 25 March 2026.

That’s 7am-10am Perth / 8.30am-11.30am Darwin / 9am-12pm Brisbane / 9.30am-12.30pm Adelaide / 12pm-3pm NZ time.

For those in the USA & Canada, it’s Tuesdays (starting March 3rd): 4pm-7pm Pacific Time / 7pm-10pm Eastern Time.

Located elsewhere? Find out what time this is for you.

Plus, every participant gets the option of a discounted individual coaching session with Emma, to be scheduled at a time of your choice within two months of completing the training.

✅ Investment & payment options

Early-bird registration: $1100 AUD incl. GST, when you register and pay in full before 20 January 2026.
Approximately $700 USD; no tax payable for overseas participants.

Standard registration: $1300 incl. GST per person
Approximately $850 USD; no tax payable for overseas participants.

Your place is confirmed on receipt of full payment.

Includes:

• Four online training sessions, with structured learning and practice. 

• Digital resources, including reusable worksheets and activity guides.

• Certificate of completion.

Optional add-on:

Individual follow-up coaching session with Emma to discuss how to implement what you have learned into your work: $280 AUD incl. GST.

Payment Options:

Payment
Register directly via Humanitix to pay via credit card. International participants can contact the team to request an invoice free of GST if based outside of Australia. Learn more about our payment options.

Scholarships
We offer two scholarship places for First Nations practitioners for each of our courses, and a discount for participants with an income under $70,000 AUD per year. Please see our scholarships page for more information and to apply.

Access
When you register, we will ask if you have any access needs or learning preferences. You can view a summary of how we learn, what platforms we use and what accessible features we provide by default here.

We highly recommend registering early to avoid missing out.
To provide a great learning experience, participant numbers are capped at 22. 

Registrations close on 2 March 2026 to allow time for onboarding.

💬 Previous participants have said…

“I got SO much out of it, even as a relatively experienced facilitator! I picked up valuable theory, exercises and had opportunities to practice and apply what I learned to my real setting. Excellent use of professional development time that I'd recommend to anyone on their facilitation journey!”

Beth Holt, Associate Director of Program in Global Primary Health Care, Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care

“The most rewarding part about attending the Designing and Facilitating Workshops Training was the immersive way that Emma facilitates and the practical, ready-to-use tools and processes that we were guided through. I also treasured the opportunity to connect with other co-design practitioners and learn from each other in an open-hearted, generous culture of mutual growth.

​​As an emerging co-design practitioner I found Emma's training invaluable to refining my practice. I have already had the opportunity to incorporate some of the practical methods I learned through Emma's training in practice and have had very positive feedback from both the stakeholders and participants. I will definitely be back for more training and would like to thank everyone I met through the training course for the incredible culture of learning and growth in the room. Emma is so attentive, generous and reflective in the way she facilitates and her impact on the world of co-design is an inspiration.”

Juanita (Nita) Childs, Design Strategist & Consultant