Objective: How can we help our coworkers understand the affordances of emerging technology?
After coming back from SXSW2017, my colleagues Heather Denike and Clarissa Hernandez, wanted to share what they learned to inspire fellow coworkers and celebrate creativity.
In addition to their share-out presentation, they wanted to create a workshop that spread the knowledge they gained through their conference experience. We collaborated on a workshop design that was both fun and got people thinking about how they might leverage emerging technology for their clients.
The workshop also allowed us to create a clear POV on technology’s relationship to what we make. We had to provide clear definitions that our coworkers could quickly pick up on the capabilities the technology provides. We also had to get to the point of the problem pretty quickly. So we wrote several short problem statements in different industries that asked how they could make the specific task easier. We focused on easier, because that is often what technology is used for.
After some speed rounds, we asked our attendees to focus on one solution they came up with and create a “pitch poster”of their idea, complete with a name and details on how their solution would work. 
We had over 50 coworkers participate in the workshop and the response was pretty positive. We had a few coworkers tell us they had a lot of fun and even learned a little.
Role: Workshop design, facilitator
Team: Heather Denike, Clarissa Hernandez