Organizing effective workshops

This is how we work and what our methods are:

1. Clearly structured and analytical With our backgrounds in media and communication sciences, economics, and education, we follow scientific working methods and criteria.
2. Artistic, creative, and open, with years of experience in artistic studio work and workshops. Anything goes, nothing is required, and nothing is off limits. There's no judgment, especially at the start. We work with all ideas, impulses, and input to develop and shape our work. We initiate free and joint brainstorming processes within the group that lead to results that overcome all possible boundaries, including those of the briefing, our own perception patterns, groups, or other institutional guidelines that could be restrictive. When it comes to generating new and innovative approaches, “rule breaking” is an important skill.
3. Practical and pragmatic: When it comes to implementation, you need to get stuck in and be pragmatic. With our experience from many successful digital and often highly innovative projects, many years of agency work and independent entrepreneurship, we are strategic and planning-oriented, creative and innovative, analytical, flexible, agile and ready to adapt when dynamic situations in innovation processes change constantly, and we are entrepreneurially efficient and effective.

What is important to us: a variety of methods, with rigor and clarity and a great deal of creativity: everything is possible, nothing is mandatory. Every idea is allowed. We find the best ones most easily.

Our goal is to work with participants to identify opportunities for creative solutions, pushing boundaries in order to develop completely new ideas and options that were not foreseeable at the outset. We like to do this through dialogue, using a kind of “ping-pong game.” We provide impetus with materials that are partly prepared in advance, such as...

• Analyses of markets, opportunities, benchmarks, target groups, products, and much more.
• Concept and solution proposals, possibilities, and options to make implementations “tangible” step by step in the early stages, cognitively, sensually, and emotionally comprehensible, in the form of steps with structures, wireframes, and initial designs, mock-ups, and prototypes.

A personal favorite example of a highly creative, methodologically sophisticated, and well-developed workshop is the International Comics Seminar, organized by the Cultural Office of the City of Erlangen under the direction of Ralf Marczinczik and Katja Rausch, who succeeded Paul Derouet.

• The participants: Comic artists from all over the world who come together once a year to work together and have a lot of fun
• The objective: To work together on comic projects and prepare publications
• The results: Exhibitions in front of an international audience during the International Comic Salon in Erlangen and numerous publications by publishing houses

You can find more information here: https://comicseminar.de as well as some personal impressions from various participants: https://www.stephan-probst.com/blog.

Brand and creative workshops

• New brand communication for healthcare companies: Workshops with all teams and stakeholders: a) Determining brand perception with structured interviews and b) implementing the new brand identity within the company | Developing and establishing brand identity, digital communication strategy, designing communication tools ... >>> multiple winner of the German Design Award and the German Brand Award
• New brand identity for a global chemical company: digital with all stakeholders in the group using a variety of methods; design of the global brand, communication strategy, and communication of product range structures and product benefits; design of all digital communication tools >>> honored at the International German Brand Award
• Internal communication campaign for industrial companies: strategy, concept, design, development of all tools: video, social media, digital, print, events, and much more.
• NGO, decentralized organization: training courses on the implementation of a digital communication strategy, development and formulation of all communication documents with guidelines, rules, templates, and design aids, didactic materials for illustration and practice.
• Hospital network in the healthcare sector: Series of workshops and editorial meetings with representatives of the participating hospitals and all decision-makers and stakeholders at headquarters to develop a joint digital communication strategy, including the design and implementation of tools.
• Scientific research organization: Workshops with stakeholders to design the digital brand identity, in particular to visualize and design the language using symbols, shapes, colors, and visual imagery.
• Brand development for a European logistics service provider: Identification, development, and analysis, design of the new brand identity, development and introduction of the new communication strategy
• City and region of a large city in northern Germany: Workshops with concept, development, and design of the brand with communication strategy and development of measures
• Development, establishment, and design of an urban brand identity for promotion in a European competition, design of all instruments: digital, social media, print, events, on-site, PR, networking, and much more. >>> The application successfully won the first stages of the competition and will be continued.
• Creative workshops for a comic book publisher to design and develop the brand identity of the label for the target group of children; Design of digital tools for end users, press, retailers >>> awarded the International iF Design Award
• Creative workshops for a food company to develop and design a product brand, including brand statements, brand story, visual language, and design of all digital communication tools for web and social media >>> Awarded TOP brand in the trade press

Editorial meetings for ongoing development and agile maintenance

• Editorial workshops and meetings for internal communication, concept, development, and maintenance of the intranet for many different clients: from healthcare, specialty chemicals, and much more.
• Ongoing project workshops for agile, collaborative project development based on defined objectives and plans

Training courses and seminars

• Workshops, training courses, seminars for an international association in the work platform and construction machinery sector for the introduction and maintenance of systems
• CMS training for almost all our customers as part of the introduction of their digital projects:
  • Technology and functions of the CMS; planning, management, and control of editorial operations
  • Editorial planning with further development of formats and planning of all contributions
  • Management, leadership, and control of editorial teams
  • Editorial operations with design, structure, and creation of content and contributions, and much more

Technology and development workshops

• Development of new tools forcompanies in the consumer electronics industry, including requirements analysis, creation of specifications, creation of functional specifications, and subsequent testing, verification, acceptance, and documentation
• System architecture for a large service portal for companies in the healthcare industry, including requirements analysis, specifications, functional specifications, and subsequent testing, verification, acceptance, and documentation
• Application portal for a financial services provider, including design and development of the system architecture with requirements analysis, specifications, and later testing, verification, acceptance, and documentation; later used as a basis for further technical developments
• Development of a PIMfora global chemical company: definition and development of processes for data maintenance, publishing, CRM, customer services, etc.
• Knowledge management and expert system for a global chemical company: concept, structure, design, and development
• Setup, maintenance, and operation of a PIM for companies in the automotive sector: setup, development, operation, maintenance, further development, and much more.