Ten Simple Rules for Running Interactive Workshops

Do you have a difficult problem to solve? Are you writing a grant proposal involving several stakeholders? Do you want to gather user feedback on a resource, tool, or service? Or perhaps you need to improve a process or way of working in a team? To address problems such as these, we recommend holding an interactive workshop. We find that the dynamic nature of such workshops encourages creative thought and can quickly yield ideas and solutions [1]. Our ten simple rules aim to empower you to design and lead your own successful interactive workshops. We define an ‘‘interactive workshop’’ as a structured set of facilitated activities for groups of participants who work together to explore a problem and its solutions, over a specific period of time, in one location. Participants can be users, potential users, team members, customers, or stakeholders. Figure 1 shows a typical layout; note if you have five or fewer participants, consider having just one group. An interactive workshop is distinct from a standard meeting because it aims to stimulate creativity through collaborative working. A meeting, in contrast, usually involves planning and reporting work with attendees sharing their individual points; it does not involve group activities ‘‘live’’ in the meeting. Also, meetings may be an hour or less, whereas the minimum time needed for an interactive workshop is 2– 3 hours. We also do not include training workshops, talks, or seminars in our definition, because from our experience they tend to comprise lectures and tutorials, not brainstorming activities. However, it could be possible to have an interactive workshop session as part of a longer training course.