Trying to anticipate the future

Context
GESDA is a non-profit organization based in Switzerland that aims at anticipating the future of science, analyzing current cutting-edge topics and trends, and then developing with diplomacy actors concrete projects helping human beings and our planet. GESDA gathers the best researchers and people, creating opportunities of interaction to allow those involved to create a positive and sustainable future. Initially they were looking for a scribe for an important meeting with many stakeholders, which then resulted in a request to support the whole design, facilitation and tech sides of the event.

Process
Organizing an online workshop is never easy. Especially when you have two and a half hours to listen, foster collaboration and share complex information with very busy people. We worked with GESDA to design an agenda with an engaging workflow, created the graphic infrastructure of the event (speakers’ backgrounds, slides, visual elements for presentations, invite…) and a dynamic, dedicated landing page with our MyEvent platform that safely stored all the information related to participants and the event. We also designed the preparatory documents to the event with a consistent visual identity.

Solution
We facilitated the session on Zoom, organizing the different speeches, managing the visuals and paying attention to the rhythm of the very intense agenda. We also managed the logistics of the work in sub-groups, 10 parallel each with 4-5 people (with an additional 4-5 coming in and out), developing templates and work tools, training the rooms’ facilitators and coordinating a team of more than 20 people. We then realized a model in real time with the results of a survey conducted during the session, which helped identifying priorities and actionable areas.