Planning an event such as a workshop or hackathon can be a demanding and time-consuming task, thus having a clearly structured outline of the process should help prepare and ensure that the event is memorable and valuable for all attendees.
Organizing a workshop or hackathon with BRYTER can be broadly categorized into three phases (1) before the event, (2) during the event, and (3) after the event.
Before the event
Define the aim/final result of the event
What should the participants take away after the workshop or hackathon? It’s important to clearly define what the expected goal of the event should be. Should participants understand what legal tech means and how tools like BRYTER can generally assist their daily practice, or even help them stand out? Should participants be enabled to identify use cases and ideally understand how to articulate and define the complete business case behind it? Should participants gain first-hand experience in the development process of a digital solution built with BRYTER and ideally finish a first version of such a digital tool?
The most important part of setting an objective is that you can track and follow up on it. Ensure that all participants have a shared understanding of the goal, so that you can agree on whether or not it has been reached after the event.
👉 Quick Checks:
- Is the aim to educate generally or to upskill on BRYTER usage?
- What aim is the most interesting for the intended workshop?
- How much time will be available? Set reasonable end results depending on the time frame (i.e., proof on concept of a digital tool around 2 hours).
Identify the attendees
Depending on the above-defined aim and final result of the event, different attendees can benefit to varying degrees: Do they have a legal background and relevant job experience? These attendees would be able to identify which areas of their daily work are rather repetitive and offer great potential for automation. However, if they have no legal background, but a good grasp for legal terminology and workflows, they might be very good at sketching the workflow and translating it into a BRYTER module.
It often makes sense to pair up or group attendees if they work on the same problem. Also, the number of attendees is directly related to the aim of the event: if the final result is a detailed solution to a problem, then you probably want 10 or fewer attendees. If your event is primarily aimed at educating, then a much larger group of attendees potentially divided into smaller groups for discussion is suitable.
👉 Quick Checks:
- Are there mostly attendees with a legal background or a mixed group?
- How many attendees are expected? Ideally, leave one spot for last-minute joiners.
- How many trainers will be necessary? Plan with one trainer for every 5-8 participants if the event is focused on finalizing modules, or one trainer per 10 participants if the event is focused on general onboarding or theoretical knowledge.
Choose the location
Depending on the number of attendees and the aim of the event, a conference room, or a whole area with dedicated breakout rooms might be most appropriate. Make sure that your location is large enough for everyone to have access to their laptops and ideally a notepad. Also consider logistics and practical details of your event: Will everyone be able to see the presentation screen and if you need a certain technology, like teleconferencing, will the location support it? Are there appropriate facilities for breakout sessions? Will everyone be able to reach the venue easily enough? Will you need to organize accommodation for people who are coming from a long way away? And what catering facilities does the venue provide?
👉 Quick Checks:
- Does the room have enough power sockets?
- Is the location easy to find/reach in a reasonable time for all participants?
- Does your location have windows and are beverages within reach to ensure a good atmosphere?
Create an agenda
With the aim and the attendee list in mind, you can start developing the general plan on how everyone will reach the desired end result and how much time you should dedicate to each necessary section. List the main points that need to be discussed and conveyed to the audience. Afterwards, break down the main points into smaller, “digestible chunks” of information. Write them down and create either a document or a visual presentation of your agenda.
When devising the agenda, it should also become clear which additional material (sticky notes, whiteboard, notepads, etc.) or technology your attendees will require. When working with BRYTER, we always recommend that every participant has access to a laptop which has the Chrome browser pre-installed and a mouse because this will ease navigating on the platform.
👉 Quick Checks:
- Does your agenda have 5 or less main points? Ensure that you do not squeeze too much content into your event.
- Do you have a clear understanding of the content of each main point and can easily convey the content?
- Do you have visual aids that you can share with participants?
Develop a communication plan and set an initial call
Communication starts ahead of the workshop and ends usually several weeks after your event with a debrief and follow up. Ahead of your event, set up a kick-off call around 3 to 4 weeks ahead to lay out the steps until the event. Consider whether each participant should ideate on possible use cases, so they can start building modules after an introduction. Set a deadline at least one week before the event to gather and discuss their use cases. The initial call should help to clarify expectations, define a roadmap on how to prepare the workshop and ensure that participants prepare fitting use cases.
Keep in mind that a BRYTER workshop might be the first legal tech workshop in the law firm ever, so your participants are likely to want some clear guidance.
Additionally, consider creating a survey to hand out to all of your attendees, to gather their opinion and use feedback to improve the whole experience.
👉 Quick Checks:
- Are your participants aware about the logistics and the agenda?
- Do your participants understand what they need to prepare and if there’s a deadline to hand in material?
- Have you assessed their use cases to ensure feasibility during the workshop?
- Do you have a clear roadmap for all the touchpoints ahead and after the workshop (calendar invite with the agenda for all participants, kick-off call, deadline for preparatory work, reminder, follow up).
During the event
Set the scene and create a check-in ritual
Clarify expectations as early as possible and make sure to include a short introduction round so that everyone has at least mentioned their name, profession, practice area or background.
Share the agenda again and make sure to introduce BRYTER as quickly and thoroughly as possible – it may happen that some important decision makers will attend the first 30 minutes, so they need to see the product and have a good understanding and impression of BRYTER.
👉 Quick Checks:
- Does everyone know at least each other’s name?
- Are all participants aware of the agenda and which final results they can expect?
- Do some participants have to leave during (parts of) the workshop?
- Is everyone equipped with the necessary material?
Guide and facilitate
Now is your time to shine and convey the relevant knowledge and skills to your audience. Make sure to select an easy-to-understand use case – such as the KYC Checker – to demonstrate the idea, added value, and functionality of BRYTER. Your (visual) presentation should include an introduction to the legal tech market and BRYTER, before you start demonstrating BRYTER. After the demonstration, participants should start building a simple module by themselves. While doing so, walk around, offer help, be present, actively try to support people with poor understanding but do not wait for everyone to be finished – this exercise is meant to simply make them feel comfortable with the tool.
You can now demonstrate other finished modules to show participants how different use cases might look and while doing so, point out some more advanced features that might come in handy for their use cases. Afterwards, participants should be equipped with the necessary understanding to build their own modules. Make sure to guide them throughout this process and offer tips or best practices. This part will usually be the longest action item of your agenda, so make sure that everyone is on track. Gently ease the transition towards presenting their use cases and estimate around 5-15 minutes for each group’s presentation.
👉 Quick Checks:
- Can you build a quick and easy-to-understand module to demonstrate basic functionality of BRYTER?
- Do you have other modules readily available to showcase advanced features and other use cases for BRYTER?
- Do you have enough room for questions?
Assess aim completion and create a check-out ritual with clearly communicated next steps
Make sure to leave enough time for a wrap up section at the end of your workshop to showcase the developed BRYTER modules. After all participants have presented and ideally voiced the highlights of their modules, it’s time to finish the workshop officially. If there’s enough room, trigger a feedback round so everyone can speak their mind and maybe also outline their individual next steps. This is also your opportunity to clearly define next steps and how communication can take place after the workshop.
👉 Quick Checks:
- Has everyone got a good understanding of what has been achieved during the event?
- Have you gathered some initial, verbal feedback of the event?
- Have you outlined, how you will follow up and how attendees can contact you?
After the event
Communicate highlights and progress
A workshop does not end on the evening of the workshop day, so make sure that you thank your contact person and/or all the participants for their participation. Highlight the final results of the workshop and ensure that everyone has your contact details for follow up questions or clarification of BRYTER features.
👉 Quick Checks:
- Have you sent an email thanking all attendees and summarized the highlights of the workshop?
- Have you shared your contact details/email signature?
Engage and ask for feedback
Address all participants again roughly a week after the workshop to make sure that no issues or questions have arisen. This can also be a good opportunity to assess the development of modules or new use cases after the workshop. Also use this follow-up contact to share your initially developed questionnaire.
👉 Quick Checks:
- Have you followed up to ensure that all questions or issues that have arisen will be brought to your attention?
- Have you shared your feedback questionnaire?
- Do you have some further information you can share with the attendees?