How to Organize Interactive Interior Design Workshops for Beginners
Interior design is a field of design that requires you to have a mixture of skills. You need to have everything from creativity and innovation to knowing how to use the latest design tools. Beginner interior designers need to work on their skills and expertise to make sure they’re up for any project that comes their way. This is why most well-organized interior design workshops for beginners are highly popular and have a large turnout.
However, organizing an interactive interior design workshop is a lot of work. It takes time and detailed planning to make it all happen, and the preparation is the hardest part. If you plan on organizing such an event but don't know what bases you have to cover, just keep reading.
Here’s everything you need to know about organizing an interactive interior design workshop for beginners.
Photo by Liza Summer
What is an Interactive Workshop?
Let's begin by explaining this concept's ''interactive'' part to ensure we're all on the same page. What makes interactive workshops different and potentially more useful than regular ones?
An interactive workshop is designed to provide the participants with practical, hands-on experience and learning through practice. It differs from the typical workshops which are mostly based on listening, taking notes, going over the provided written materials, and similar.
In the case of an interior design workshop, making it interactive means:
providing materials for practical activities
collaborative work
project work
different kinds of modeling, sketching, and design
You should also think of some challenges for the participants, like coming up with proposal essay ideas as a part of the workshop problem-solving segment or competing as teams against one another. It's open to your imagination.
How to Organize an Interactive Interior Design Workshop for Beginners?
Now, we’ve come to the main part, and that is answering our initial question. What are the steps to take when organizing a beginners’ interactive workshop in interior design?
We’ve broken down the process into different segments and created a chronological guide for you.
Define ‘’Beginners’’
The term beginner has such a broad scope, and it can be hard to pin it down. But, when you’re getting ready to organize an interior design workshop, you need to set some kind of boundaries for yourself.
This means that you need to decide what a beginner is to you in this case. Defining beginners will help you prepare suitable programs and materials and make sure all participants can be actively engaged.
A beginner can be:
someone with very little knowledge and zero experience
someone with some experience but poor knowledge of techniques and terminology
someone who’s just recently developed an interest in interior design
someone who’s in the middle of a career change
So, think about the type of beginner persona you’ll build your course for. Decide some basic requirements for entering the workshop, and try to define them as precisely as possible.
This will help you gather a group of people with similar capabilities and skills, making the workshop more successful.
Set the Learning Goals
Next on your preparation agenda is to set clear learning goals - that is, to define what the workshop participants will master or accomplish during the workshop. This is the most important step in the preparation process since everything else will be based on it.
To do this properly, you can first brainstorm ideas for what you’d like to include in the workshop. Then, try to narrow it down and connect the segments you wish to cover.
Here are just some examples of what these workshops can be focusing on:
creating a mood board for a design project
choosing and combining materials
space planning
client communication
applying the color theory to different spaces
budgeting a project
using eco-friendly materials in interior design
three most popular design styles
So, decide what you want to teach them and write it down. Then, move on to the next step.
Outline the Workshop Concept
Now that you have your goal(s) and you’ve defined your target audience, it’s time to start working on your workshop concept. This means deciding what the workshop will look like and how it will be organized.
Here are just some of the basic details to outline:
how long will it last (a couple of hours, a day, several days)
what segments will it have (theoretical, practical, group work)
how will you organize the segments
how many facilitators or lecturers will you have
where will it be held
Try to work out these details in the form of an outline. You can add or change various information as you progress in the organization process.
Create the Written Materials
Now it’s time to work on the written materials, which will be your interactive activities' base. Each interactive activity will require you to prepare the participants using theoretical knowledge.
Don’t forget these have to be beginner-friendly materials. To make them easy to comprehend, try to apply these strategies:
divide it into segments based on the learning objectives
use simple vocabulary
use educational and instructional style
include examples and visuals
You can use CADdetails.com to find architectural examples and inspiration, as well as drawings and design-related blog posts. This can be a good resource for your workshop materials.
Ensure each participant gets a copy of the materials to follow along as the lecturers speak. You can make room for notes on the side so that they can easily write things down.
Create the Interactive Activities
Now you’ve come to the part of your workshop that all the participants are looking forward to the most. It’s time to break down the interactive activities they’ll be engaged in and all the details.
For each activity, you’ll need to think about the following details:
learning objectives you’re supporting
time and place
how long does it last
materials that you need
is it an individual or a group activity
group dynamics
final goal
You’ll need to prepare materials like samples, drawing paper, sketchbooks, drawing tools, magazines, fabrics, materials for creating mood boards, and more.
Also, think about the process of going from introducing the activity and working on the assignments to wrapping it up, cleaning up the space, and finalizing them.
Have a Feedback Strategy
After each activity is over, it would be best if you had a feedback session with the participants. This means you’d be discussing the activity's results and the process of getting there.
You must cover:
how difficult was the task
what did they learn
how did they overcome some of the obstacles
how do they feel about their work
Also, the activity facilitator needs to comment on the process and the results, giving additional guidance to all participants.
Plan the Entry Process
Before you publish your workshop as open for signing up, you should plan the process of entering it. Will it be open to anyone? Are there criteria to be met? Is there a form that needs to be filled?
Make sure you find the best strategy for your interactive workshop and define who can apply and how.
For instance, you can create a Google Forms application form that potential participants could fill out online. Ask them questions about their age, education, experience, skills, and more, to be able to segment them and accept only certain applicants.
Plan Your Advertising
After you have all the details worked out, the only thing that’s left is for you to plan the advertising for the interactive interior design workshop. Planning your advertising means giving your workshop an online presence that will draw potential participants’ attention and get them to apply or enroll.
The first thing you need to come up with are details like:
title of the workshop
brief description
call-to-action for those interested
visual design
Next, you’ll need to come up with a strategy to start sharing this information across the platforms you choose. For the best engagement and potential turnout, we suggest you use these powerful pillars of modern marketing:
social media
email
Google Ads
event platforms
It’s smart to have all the bases covered and share the news across multiple channels, but put your main focus on social media. Why? Because 46% of people find it to be the best platform for event marketing.
Final Thoughts
When you’re organizing an interactive interior design workshop, you have a lot of different planning stages to go through. Preparing the materials and the activities and advertising the event might be the biggest challenges. But, if you start on time and slowly progress through the process, there won’t be any bigger bumps on the road.
Use our guide to plan your next workshop. We hope you make it a huge success.
Author: Jodi Williams is an event coordinator with a passion for writing. His main goal is to help amateurs and beginners plan successful events and inspire those more experienced to be creative and innovative in their event planning.
Cover image by Sidekix Media on Unsplash
