The session was co-hosted by Dgroups Foundation Associates Jessica Ball and Pier Andrea Pirani, with contributions from Rocío Sanz, Davide Piga, Simon Hearn, and Ivan Piseta, alongside participants joining from a wide range of organisations and regions.

The exchange was structured around four themes:

• Knowledge retention;
• The role of AI in knowledge management and collaboration; 
• How to understand and assess success in online collaboration and knowledge exchange; and 
• What it takes to sustain and grow engagement over time. 

These themes provided a shared frame for the conversation.

Why knowledge retention still matters

Rocío opened by emphasising that knowledge retention goes beyond documents and databases. While reports and systems capture part of what organisations know, much of the most valuable knowledge remains tacit, shaped by experience, context, and relationships.

Participants reflected on how short contracts, staff turnover, and fragmented ways of working often lead to the quiet loss of institutional memory. Knowing where organisations and communities come from is not about repeating the past, but being better equipped to respond to the future, informed by what has already been tried, learned, and adapted.

Simon added that communities of practice offer an important space for this kind of learning, bringing together participation (conversation and interaction) and reification (documents, tools, and artefacts) in ways that allow knowledge to be interpreted and reused, not just stored.

AI as a support, not a substitute

A second focus was on the roles of artificial intelligence in knowledge management and collaboration.

Davide shared practical examples from the recent relaunch of the KM4Dev Knowledge Sharing Toolkit, where AI is used to reduce barriers to contribution. Instead of asking contributors to produce polished written content, the toolkit allows people to talk through a method or experience, with AI helping to structure this into a first draft that follows agreed templates and style.

AI is also being used to support reflection, helping practitioners surface lessons learned from experience and link those insights to existing methods. This approach aimed to keep people at the centre while making contributions easier.

At the same time, speakers and participants were clear about limitations. AI produces fluent language without understanding context or truth, and can introduce unnecessary complexity if not used carefully. Several contributors stressed that AI should support thinking and reflection – not replace them – and that tacit knowledge still depends on human interaction.

Ivan added that, from a platform perspective, one promising direction is using AI to improve discoverability, helping users find relevant content more easily, rather than asking AI to generate new conclusions or advice.

Collaboration and knowledge exchange are not projects

The third theme was how to understand and assess “success” in online collaboration and knowledge exchange, particularly in settings where participation is voluntary, and outcomes are not easily reduced to metrics.

Simon offered a framing that resonated strongly: online collaboration spaces and communities cannot be treated in the same way as projects or programmes. Participants join for different reasons, and conveners, host organisations, and funders often bring their own expectations.

Simon distinguished between internal outcomes, such as changes in participation and collaboration practices, and external outcomes, where learning influences work beyond the collaboration space itself. He also noted that conventional evaluation tools, such as surveys, often struggle to gain traction in voluntary contexts.

Reflection and learning, he suggested, are more effective when embedded into activities that already matter to participants, supporting learning rather than accountability alone.

Onboarding, trust, and sustaining engagement

The final theme focused on sustaining and growing engagement over time, bringing the discussion back to fundamentals that cut across all four areas.

Rocío highlighted how the shift to online work has reduced informal spaces for connection and sense-making. Well-designed collaboration spaces can help recreate some of this, but only if people feel welcomed and safe to contribute.

Davide emphasised that onboarding is not a technical step but a relational one.

Clear expectations, shared values, and explicit norms help participants engage without fear of judgment or reputational risk. Several speakers noted that small, intentional practices (e.g., welcome messages, community charters, etc.) often have a decisive impact on engagement.

Simon offered a reminder that most participants will never post actively, and that this is not necessarily a problem.

By supporting a small group of active contributors, collaboration spaces can sustain energy while still creating value for quieter participants.

Shared value and looking ahead

Looking across the discussion threads, people highlighted the importance of shared value, not only among participants, but also between collaboration spaces and the organisations that support them. For engagement to be sustainable, participation needs to be meaningful for individuals and aligned with organisational priorities.

Despite different roles and contexts, participants described similar challenges and lessons. Technologies will continue to evolve, and funding environments will remain uncertain. Yet many fundamentals remain constant:

If you have feedback on the Exchange, or ideas for future Knowledge & Learning Exchanges, we’d be glad to hear from you – drop a comment below or get in touch with us

This 90-minute interactive session will bring together online facilitators, knowledge managers, and practitioners from across international development, humanitarian, and social justice networks to explore how online collaboration can become more effective and engaging.

Under the theme “Collaboration Futures: Strengthening online communities and practices,” this year’s Exchange will draw on experiences and lessons from Dgroups partners and collaborators. Through short conversations, breakout discussions, and shared reflections, we will explore:

• Using AI in knowledge management and sharing – Lessons from the KS Toolkit
  
• Measuring online collaboration and knowledge exchange
  
• Knowledge retention and continuity – why it matters and how to do it
  
• Sustaining, growing and enhancing online engagement

Join us and guest speakers Davide Piga, Rocio Sanz and Simon Hearn.

The session is open to anyone interested in strengthening online communities, facilitating knowledge exchange, or improving collaboration across projects and organisations. It offers a chance to connect with peers, hear practical examples, and take away ideas that can be applied in everyday work.

📅 Date: Thursday 20 November 2025
🕒 Time: 14:00–15:30 CET (13:00–14:30 UTC)
💻 Format: Online (Zoom)
🔗 Register here: Link 

Please feel free to share the invitation with colleagues who might be interested.

We look forward to connecting with you in November!

IFAD Innovation Network

Gladys Morales presented the IFAD innovation network as an example of using online groups to discuss an issue in a community of interest. The IFAD Innovation Network is an informal group of innovation practitioners, authors, and global influencers that aims to reach 2,000 members by the end of the year. The network serves as a hub for innovation-related activities and initiatives within IFAD, as well as a mechanism for engaging with external partners. It provides a space for collaboration, dialogue, and learning, with the aim of driving innovation in IFAD’s operations and beyond. It is open to the public, and members include innovation practitioners, authors, and renowned global influencers in innovation, as well as individuals from academia, research institutions, private sector companies, and civil society organizations.

In terms of platform functionalities and features that are used to enhance collaboration, engagement, and knowledge sharing among members of the network, Gladys focused on the use of hashtags. Hashtags are used consistently to categorize posts related to specific innovation themes or projects. This makes it easier for members who are interested in that topic to find and engage with the post, to track the overall conversation and engagement around a particular theme or project.

CGIAR GENDER

Vivan Atakos introduced the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform as an example of using online groups across initiatives or projects. She shared how they use the group platform to support networking and sharing across different initiatives related to gender in agriculture. The group brings together gender researchers from 14 research centers across the world, and the platform is used to actively enable internal knowledge sharing, learning, and collaboration. The group has 225 members, including gender researchers, donors, and practitioners interested in gender issues. The platform provides a safe space for informal exchanges, sharing of events, publications, job opportunities, and consultancies related to gender in agriculture. Vivian encourages membership by providing targeted emails to new staff members, inviting them to join the platform, and providing a link to sign up.

A group feature that is particularly relevant and used is the calendar – a convenient and effective way to track key events and ensure everyone is informed. It is a simple solution that makes a big difference in keeping members updated with the latest happenings related to gender in agriculture.

KM4Dev (internal) groups

The KM4Dev group is well-known as an example of a successful online Community of Practice. But behind the main, public, group, the KM4Dev volunteers and core group also use several other online groups. These are normally small groups, set up and used to facilitate specific processes related to the management of the community and community activities – for example: to organize the rotation of monthly volunteer moderators; to discuss research and research issues; to coordinate between KM4Dev Journal editors; to plan and follow up on Core Group meetings and discussions.

Sarah Cummings illustrated how these different subgroups work and how they are managed, and some of the platform functionalities that they use. In the volunteers’ group, using polls makes the process of identifying monthly list moderators very efficient – the poll functionality is part of the platform, and polls can quickly be set up and launched.

C4C Advocacy group

John Ede from Charter for Change (C4C) illustrated how C4C is using online groups to support their advocacy initiatives. Charter for Change is an initiative led by national and international NGOs aiming to implement changes in the humanitarian system to enable more locally-led humanitarian responses. The C4C Advocacy Group is a smaller group within the network that advocates approaches to address imbalances and inequalities in the global humanitarian system and make equitable partnerships with local and national actors core to funding streams. The group has approximately 150 members from local, national, and international NGOs, as well as allied networks and organizations working on the localization of aid agenda. Members exchange information and collaborate to advance advocacy as individual agencies and collectively as the Charter for Change network, driving progress on the localization of aid agenda.

The group uses the email list functionality of the online platform to organize calls and discuss joint statements or pledges, which are then fed back into the group for comments or additions. The group also jointly develops advocacy statements as INGOs and national NGOs to influence key humanitarian decision-makers or strategies and organizes localization-focused side events.

D4Ag online dialogue

Giacomo Rambaldi shared experiences with an online, facilitated dialogue that the Digital Agri Hub convened with support from the Dgroups Foundation.

The online dialogue aimed to identify priorities and gaps in capacity-building opportunities for digitalization in agriculture. The dialogue, designed and facilitated by the Dgroups Foundation, was conducted for a three-week period across various platforms such as Zoom and the email list. Other group features were used to support the process, such as: the calendar, to publish the dialogue timeline and milestones; the wiki, to explain the dialogue process, provide technical guidance to participants, and publish weekly discussion summaries; the hashtags, to organize messages and topics.

He also focused on some of the challenges of engaging people to contribute to such exercises. From a survey he conducted some time ago, the results indicated that members in online groups may be hesitant to contribute due to their language constraints, which make them afraid to write and contribute publicly to a dialogue. He suggested that a similar survey could be replicated, with a standard questionnaire administered across different Dgroups Partners groups to identify other potential challenges to engaging contributors.

The chat and discussion throughout the talk show highlighted how the groups.io platform is rich in functionality, facilitating member engagement and providing a voice to many. Participants also noted the importance of ‘democratizing’ online dialogue and exchange through user collaboration and engagement. Some participants also suggested organizing training for the community at least once a year to remind members of the platform’s functionalities and to foster adoption. Finally, participants suggested and encouraged to continue this type of experience-sharing events to all benefit from individual experiences across the Dgroups partnership.

This is the third of a series of short posts from the discussion. The other two posts cover:

• Online interaction around events and meetings – the peer assist
• Online collaboration experience exchange – the 24 February session

Talk to us if you look for advice, coaching, and support in your work with online groups and communities

Jessica Ball brought the questions. She works as part of the KM Team in the UN-REDD programme. Last year, Jessica started an online community, coinciding with a two-day event in Rome, where representatives from all regions came together – but not all members of the virtual community could join. Jessica admitted that they were a bit late in starting the group and didn’t have much time to engage people before the event. They tried to connect with online group members through summaries after day one and through a final summary of day two. Despite these efforts, she asked how they could more effectively engage the community around different online and in-person events.

What could be done differently, to support upcoming and future events?

Pier Andrea Pirani was the peer assistant. He offered an example from a project he was involved with as part of a larger team supporting a three-day, face-to-face, experience capitalization workshop. The workshop was preceded by a two-week online engagement beforehand, covering a lot of ground and mapping people, expertise, potential connections, and what was needed. By doing so, both participants and the facilitation team went into the workshop with a head start, and by the end of the workshop, it was possible to produce a significant list of products, some in draft, and some still in a conceptual phase.

5 key elements to support events

Engaging a group around events requires careful planning, clear aims, and engagement before, during, and after the event.

1. Set a clear purpose: Define what you want to achieve through the online interaction, and make sure it adds to the event and brings value.
   

2. Plan carefully: Keep in mind the needs and expectations of the group. Consider the format, duration, and resources needed – and be realistic with the time and resources available.
   

3. Engage before the event: Engage with the participants ahead of the event to build connections, gather insights, and prepare for the event. Use this time to map people, expertise, and what is needed. This can help finalize an event agenda and preparations. It can be useful for both logistics as well as on the substance of a meeting.
   

4. Engage during the event: Use the group as a space to reach out to people that cannot attend the event, and to share knowledge, documents, and additional information generated or discussed at the event. It’s important to have the right expectations and motivators so useful engagement can take place. Often, some form of curation and facilitation is necessary.
   

5. Engage after the event: Follow up with the community after the event to share outcomes, gather feedback, and plan for future events. Keep the connections warm and use the face-to-face meeting as a springboard to foster online participation post-event.

Particularly where several events are planned, such online support helps to link people, support continuing discussion threads and conversations, and guide attention to agreed follow-ups, plans, or previous documentation.

Events can be a powerful tool to engage and support online groups – and online platforms can really help in supporting and complementing events. By setting clear goals, planning carefully, and engaging before, during, and after the event, communities can be brought together to share knowledge, collaborate, and work towards a common goal.

This is the second of a series of short posts from the discussion. The other two posts cover:

• Online collaboration use cases in depth – the talk show
• Online collaboration experience exchange – the 24 February session

Talk to us if you look for advice on online support and interaction around events

The experience-sharing session on 24 February 2023 drew from our diverse partner network and their sector involvement to discuss and share practical strategies of different online communities. To do this, we used a typology of uses – or use cases – that we observe our partners to work with. We thought these would provide a useful framework to interact and learn while recognizing that most such communities have several objectives.

After an icebreaker session, Peter Ballantyne very briefly introduced the Dgroups Foundation and its journey since 2002. He summarized the typology comprising seven typical uses cases that we observe among partners:

1. around events – helping to prepare, plan, report, and follow up face-to-face, virtual or hybrid meet-ups;
   
2. across initiatives or projects – supporting collaboration and information exchange among participants in a defined project;
   
3. on an issue – sharing ideas and connecting people with shared interests in a topic;
   
4. for a knowledge product – reinforcing co-development of proposals, articles, or other joint outputs among a group of individuals;
   
5. for learning and capacity development – sharing information and lessons to complement training, mentoring, or other educational efforts;
   
6. for purposeful engagement and dialogue – holding guided conversation and interaction to improve practice on an issue or challenge;
   
7. for advocacy towards a goal – helping people share and align ideas and actions around a shared vision.

While recognizing that online groups typically support multiple purposes, we thought it would be useful to explore the similarities and differences around different uses and how these shape the support and facilitation an online group needs.

The rest of the event dived deeper into different cases to identify insights for success.

The first element was a ‘peer assist’ where Jessica Ball sought lessons and feedback on how an online group could support event preparation, delivery, and follow-up.

Pier Andrea Pirani was her ‘peer assistant’ and he illustrated some ideas from an earlier engagement where a three-day face-to-face workshop used online groups before, during, and after the event. In that case, participants in the face-to-face meeting were invited to join a facilitated pre-event group where they introduced themselves, mapped interests and expertise, and pointed to additional resources. Material from this was used in the physical meeting. The group was also used during and after the workshop to start synthesizing insights and to support the follow up actions.

Next, Saskia Harmsen hosted a talk show where other use cases were the primary focus:

1. Gladys Morales from the IFAD innovation network talked about her online group as an example of an issue-driven community of interest.
   
2. Vivan Atakos from the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform talked about her group as an example of a project or initiative-supporting mechanism.
   
3. Sarah Cummings from the KM4Dev community explained how several online groups are used internally to manage this community of individuals.
   
4. John Ede from the C4C coalition explained how this group of organizations use their online groups to support advocacy initiatives towards specific goals.
   
5. Giacomo Rambaldi shared how the Digital Agri Hub ran an online, facilitated dialogue to mobilise ideas across its online community.

Discussions revolved around technical issues and platform-related features, as well as facilitation and user-side concerns. Ideas and suggestions were floated to better support users and moderators in utilizing such platforms to their full potential.

Overall, the dialogue underscored the relevance of the Dgroups Foundation’s mission to support and enhance Partners’ online groups and communities through learning, peer-sharing, and experimentation to optimize platform functionality and facilitation processes.

This is the first of a series of short posts from the discussion. The other two posts cover:

• Online interaction around events and meetings – the peer assist
• Online collaboration use cases in depth – the talk show

Talk to us if you look for advice, coaching, and support in your work with online groups and communities

Development and humanitarian organisations increasingly want to include and act upon young people’s voices, opinions, and insights. The past five years have seen a blossoming of youth activist movements across the globe, leading to the amplification of youth voices working across the intersections of climate, environment, and social justice. At a time when young people are demanding more from global leaders, whilst trusting them less; how can organisations ensure initiatives to develop youth dialogues are inclusive, purposeful, and mutually beneficial for all involved? 

To mark this year’s International Youth Day, the Dgroups Foundation with the support of KM4Dev convened an online event on “youth in dialogues”. The aim of the event was to bring together experiences where dialogue and other processes have explicitly worked with youth or tried to amplify their voices on development and humanitarian issues.

The seed of this event was planted in October 2021, during a Dgroups Foundation event on Online collaboration trends and actions for more effective international development. During the closing fishbowl at that event, Hannah Kabelka encouraged us all to have more youth representation, especially when discussing actions for future online collaboration and dialogues: a challenge that the Dgroups Foundation took on board and has been reflecting on, subsequently leading to this dialogue. 

What’s the essence of positive youth dialogues?

Acknowledging the varying motivations, capacities, and intentions for bringing youth together, the event began with a short networking exercise that allowed participants to share reflections on positive and less positive experiences of when they contributed or took part in a youth dialogue or forum. The word clouds below capture these experiences and are a powerful reminder of the importance of listening, inclusion, and setting up processes that truly and genuinely want to engage youth and take on board their ideas and opinions to drive positive change.

Sharing experiences, and learning together 

Our chat show guests shared their experiences and lessons learned from processes that they have led and been part of:

• Erica Di Girolami talked about the youth consultations that were organised for the XV World Forestry Congress (WFC) and led to the Work with Us: Youth Call for Action issued at the close of the Congress;

• Nawsheen Hosenally shared her personal journey and the value she got through her participation in youth activities and dialogues that were organised under the banner of the ARDYIS programme, lead by the (now closed) CTA to raise the capacity and opportunities of youth in agriculture through ICTs in ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific);
  
• Woroud Albtoush shared the experience of the Share-Net International Improvement Model (SHIRIM) and the intergenerational diaologues they have conducted on the topic of “Parents-adolescent relationship in regard to Sexual Reproductive Health information and education”

You can view the recording of the chat show below. 

10 points for more effective youth dialogues

Below we summarised some key points from the discussions that can guide more organisations towards equitable and meaningful dialogue with young people. 

	Time  We heard this again and again during the dialogue: well designed and facilitated consultation processes take time, our speakers spoke about processes that took place over 18 months, 24 months and 10 years.
	Commitment Commitment needs to come from all involved – the youth taking part, and the organisations leading the consultation. Organisations supporting the consultation should be clear on what they can offer; formalise the engagement and incentivise participation.
	Avoid stand-alone events One-off events signal a lack of commitment, and may raise concerns about youth being exploited for promotional or positioning purposes. The processes we heard about wove together surveys, virtual events, consultations, competitions and knowledge products over the course of the consultation and beyond.
	Have a clear goal It goes without saying that we all want to feel we are making good use of our time, and adding value in the right places. Youth want to be involved in processes that will leave a legacy. All the processes we heard about resulted in tangible outcomes – a ‘youth call to action,’ knowledge product or communique.
	Have a clear plan To achieve the clear goal you need to have a clear plan. It is important to outline and communicate the different steps of the process, how youth will be involved and how it relates to the overall organisational strategy. The plan can also become a useful tool to strengthen commitment, an example of which was shared by one speaker in the form of a ‘change package.’
	Incentivise participation Having a clear goal and plan are vital incentives for participation and commitment over the process. However, consider other ways to incentivise youth – we heard how important it was to make consultations fun; to provide opportunities for mentoring, travel etc or the use of organisational platforms to amplify youth achievements and activities.
	Support with organisational capacity Many of the initiatives we heard about received support from partner organisations in the form of translation of events; social media promotion; event design and facilitation guidance etc which were key to the success of the consultations.
	Involve decision makers Whilst the ‘youth for youth’ approach is important, it needs to be supported by decision makers: it cannot just be a dialogue among youth. Like all new organisational approaches, it is unlikely to succeed without leadership buy-in and support.
	Invest in facilitation  Our speakers stressed the importance of having good moderation and facilitation of the consultation process and events. The role of the facilitator is to hold the space (virtual or in-person) for the participants, make it safe for them to express views, allow collaboration to occur and ensure the process is on track to meet the goals and objectives.
	Add a personal touch Ultimately all humans want to feel seen, heard and appreciated. Our speakers shared how important it is to provide a space for young people to feel free to express themselves; tha a mix of virtual and in-person events should be considered; and to always design with fun and inclusive participation in mind.

Next steps

The learning and discussion should not stop here. 

In fact, there was a clear call from participants that this should not be just a one-off event – more knowledge-sharing events like this would be welcome.

Participants also indicated they would appreciate sectoral dialogues or online discussions (e.g. youth in agriculture; youth in forestry; youth in sexual and reproductive health and rights; etc), as well as collective work on principles/guidelines on how to involve and include youth online, amplifying their voices and looking to engage into their dialogues. 

Some participants indicated that they need to enhance their skills in facilitating youth dialogues.

As Dgroups Foundation, we really appreciate the contributions from the people who joined and shared their experiences. 

Underlying all these conversations it seems to us, is the notion that yes, development and humanitarian organisations can do much better at engaging and listening to youth in their online efforts. But, as important, the new and next generations are ‘born’ digital and their online expectations and expertise and what grabs and motivates their attention are quite different to earlier generations raised on email, PowerPoint and, nowadays, Zoom or MS Teams. 

There is space for more experimentation and capacity development as well as organisational and individual learning and adaptation that takes our dialogues in different and uncharted directions. 

We, as development organisations, can better include youth and their concerns in our activities through online dialogue; we also need enhanced youth-led and focused interactions, and to support them in including earlier generations and, hopefully, helping to devise our future development toolkit for online discussion and learning.    

We will take these ideas on board and work with partners to ensure that this will not be just another stand-alone event but the beginning of an inclusive process.

Please share any feedback in the comments below or by email to foundation@dgroups.info. We especially welcome offers and suggestions to take any of the ideas here, or others, forward.

Links and resources

• [Slides] About the Youth consultation and youth call to action
• [News article] XV World Forestry Congress: Young people call for more opportunities, training and political participation in the forest sector
• [File] Work with Us – Youth Call for Action XV WFC 
• [Podcast] Youth call to action for intergenerational collaboration; co-creating pathways for a sustainable future with forest
• [Blogs] Category archive for WFC Korea youth declaration
  
• [Slides] Youth engagement in SHIRIM
• [Knowledge platform] Share-Net international
• [News article] Share-Net Jordan: Spring 2022 Activities
• [Web page] Share-Net International Rapid Improvement Model (SHIRIM)

• [Brief] More effective online collaboration, dialogue, and interaction – What works in international development? (Jan 2021)

Thursday 11 August 2022 – 2 pm CEST – check time in your time zone

Registration link: https://bit.ly/3yRXCle

Development and humanitarian organisations increasingly want to include and act upon the voices, opinions, and insights of young people.

They often do this by setting up specific youth dialogues and fora, by inviting youth into other events and activities, and by giving roles to young people in programs and projects.

As examples, the EU Youth Dialogue happens in 18-month work cycles, to ensure that “the opinion, views, and needs of young people and youth organisations are taken into account when defining the EU’s youth policies.” At the global level, the UN Deputy Secretary-General has embarked on a series of dialogues to connect with youth representatives – such as with the Virtual Youth Dialogue on Climate hosted in 2021. Another recent example is the World Bank Group Youth Summit 2022 which took place in May 2022 in Washington DC and virtually. 

We also see an appetite from young people themselves to create spaces and actively contribute to dialogue and debate on a wide range of technical, societal, and policy questions. Young people are digitally connected as never before and they use digital platforms and tools differently than previous generations. 

As we look forward, how can development organisations best include young voices in dialogues? And what can we learn from the ways that youth engage online, to better respond to their aspirations and needs and devise more inclusive online dialogues?

To mark this year’s International Youth Day, the Dgroups Foundation and KM4Dev will convene a facilitated online dialogue on “youth in dialogues”.  We aim to bring together experiences where dialogue and other processes have explicitly worked with youth or tried to amplify their voices on development and humanitarian issues.

The “youth in dialogue” event will explore the following questions:

• How are youth being brought into and involved in local to global dialogues?
• Which format(s) are being used to engage youth? And with what results?
• How and where are young people themselves engaging in dialogue and becoming part of the solution to global issues?
• What actions or activities seem to help such dialogues with youth continue and produce results into the future?
• What are ‘good practices’ in involving youth?
• What value is being created for youth themselves in these processes? Is there reciprocity from organizations?

These events shared two objectives:

• Investigate and discuss the state, potential, and challenges of digitalisation for agriculture (D4AG) in the regions; and 
• Introduce the work of the Digital Agri Hub in collecting, curating, visualising, and disseminating information on digital solution providers in the three regions.

The first two events – for LAC and the Francophone regions – were designed in the form of a virtual trade show: in each event, 12 solution providers pitched their solutions, and participants were invited to discover more in breakout rooms. 

Both sessions also had either opening, scene-setting presentations or a closing, interactive chat show with invited guests.

Participants in both events appreciated the level of the speakers, the relevance of the solutions provided, the networking and information exchange, as well as the design and facilitation of the event. Possible improvements for future, similar sessions include having fewer solution providers presenting, and/or a slightly longer meeting time.

The Asia launch event was designed as a Policy Dialogue on Regional and Country Policies and Pathways. It focused on D4Ag policy and regulatory frameworks; technical and human capital; and the infrastructure and business environment for digital agriculture transformation. 

Because of the format of a policy dialogue requiring a more ‘formal’ and ‘managed’ setting, we opted to host this event as a Zoom webinar, designed around two facilitated panels with guest speakers. Audience interaction was achieved through the public webinar chat; the Q&A module; and Menti. 

One advantage of the webinar mode over meetings (besides the more detailed meeting reports generated by Zoom) is the Q&A module. If well managed and used in a coordinated manner between meeting facilitators, session moderators, and speakers, it can help harvest, answer, archive, or bring offline a large number of questions. 

We supported these events with:

• Overall session planning and design;
• Facilitation – in Spanish for the LAC event, with Rocio Sanz as the lead facilitator; French for the Francophone event, with Ewen Le Borgne as the lead facilitator; and English for the Asia event, facilitated by Jessica Ball;
• Sourcing and coordination with session interpreters – with Agostina Sueldo coordinating live interpretation Spanish/English and and Serge Dalli coordinating live interpretation French/English;
• Liaising with speakers and participants – for guidance on platform and process;
• Technical hosting – on Zoom;
• Post production – follow up messages to participants; Zoom reports; session recordings, materials etc.

Talk to us if you look for facilitation support and advice for your events, meetings, and conferences

Register now!

The event will explore the status and potential for scaling digitalization for agriculture (D4Ag) solutions in low and middle-income countries where the market is relatively weak compared to the role of public actors.

At its simplest, Liberating Structures could be presented as a set of 33 participation formats and facilitation methods. But really it’s a lot more than that. It’s a language unto itself – a language of collaboration.

Ewen briefly presented some well used and known Liberating Structures such as 15% Solutions, Troika Consulting, 1-2-4-all, 20/15 Crowdsourcing, TRIZ.

LS are modular so you can nest one inside the other, combine them together, scale them, in a set of infinite possibilities.

Ewen also reflected on what advantages Liberating Structures bring to our practice, regardless of the type of meeting and events. LS bring a conscious and explicit effort to involve everyone from the outset, making space for each individual reflection and contribution.

Ewen concluded by sharing the 10 principles of Liberating Structures and invited everyone to explore LS and ‘borrow’ from it for ideas and examples in our online or offline work.