Designing and Facilitating Workshops
KEY INFORMATION
Dates: 5-26 November (Australia) / November 4th-25th (USA/Canada)
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 facilitating workshops, empowering you to create more effective, inclusive, and impactful engagement 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?
This course consists of four online training sessions, with 10-20 participants, delivered once a week.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 co-design facilitation and capability building, creating safe and engaging spaces for practitioner 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. This training focuses on co-design facilitation but is relevant for anyone wanting to expand their skillset in delivering engaging workshops.
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 to engage in 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 Thursdays, 5-26 November 2026.
8.30am-11.30am Darwin / 9am-12pm Brisbane / 9.30am-12.30pm Adelaide / 12pm-3pm NZ time.
This is Wednesdays in the Americas, November 4th-25th: 3pm-6pm Pacific Time / 6pm-9pm 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
We use tiered pricing to support individuals who self-fund, encourage early registrations, and to reflect the additional admin involved in organisational invoicing.
Individual — early-bird, until 17 September: $1,100 AUD, incl GST.
Approximately $720 USD; no tax payable for overseas participants.
Individual — standard: $1,200 AUD, incl GST.
Organisations — per person, on invoice: $1,300 AUD, incl GST.
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: $290 AUD incl. GST.
We highly recommend registering early to avoid missing out.
To provide a great learning experience, participant numbers are capped at 22.
Registrations close when we reach capacity or on 2 November 2026 to allow time for onboarding.
Access and payment options
Payment options
Register directly via Humanitix to pay via credit card or request an invoice in AUD. International participants can contact the team to request an invoice free of GST in another currency 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.
Get course updates
Keen to join us for a future series of Designing and Facilitating Workshops?
Register your interest in Designing & Facilitating Workshops and we'll email you when the next session opens. Want to hear about our other courses too? Tick as many as you like — we'll keep you in the loop.
