Organizing a Share Fair
Events such as Share Fair, that include the application of knowledge sharing tools and methods, encourage lot of interaction and thus need careful planning. Even though a Fair aims at spontaneous and informal exchange of ideas, improvisation can reside in the flow of thoughts and content, not in the approach.
Ideally, a team organizing a fair can be divided into 4 subgroups. The list of these subgroups and some of the activities of each of these teams include but are not limited to:
Content Team:
- Drafts guidelines, concept note, call for proposals
- Writes content for the Web site
- Evaluates proposals
- Drafts the agenda and the programme
Communications Team:
- Works on the visual identity and graphic design of the Fair
- Plans communication/promotion/public relations strategy
- Advertises the event through different channels/media
- Prepares press releases and news items
- Uses social media to encourage discussion and report about the event
- Creates/Updates the Web site
Logistics Team:
- Plans to reserve/loan facilities, meeting rooms, IT devices and catering
- Recruits and instructs an audiovisual support team managing amplification, video demos, music, IT requests
- Orders facilitation, stationary and promotional materials
- Supports participants with travel and accomodation
- Finalizes the list of participants
Training/Facilitation Team:
- Analyzes the proposals to design and facilitate the sessions
- Structures the facilitated sessions and the trainings applying the appropriate methods and tools
- Meets with the participants to clarify the objectives of the sessions
The event itself is normally a blended selection of the following possible formats.
In addition to the above, other opportunities to promote further interaction can be introduced into the event.