HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN FACILITATION & EVENT DESIGN

Human-centered design focuses on the people at the core of the question or project at hand, developing empathy for their needs and their experience, designing a solution that meets their needs, and implementing the solution in a way that is iterative and incorporates their feedback throughout the process.

Ahavah was tasked to design the convening of major leaders from the Baltimore public school district systems, nonprofits, policy-makers, corporations, social entrepreneurs, banks to address how they might work collectively to infuse entrepreneurship into the public school in Baltimore and create the space for economic opportunities.

The summit had two major audiences, the attendees and the youth of Baltimore -- the ultimate benefactor. This group of leaders convened to be in service of this population, therefore all activities were designed with ultimate end-user at the center of the event’s design.

In order to better understand the attendees, we surveyed their motivations and expectations for the event before we met in person. This information allowed Ahavah to chose appropriate tools and facilitation techniques to design the Summit to align with the Conscious Venture Lab’s goals. To address the second audience, the Baltimore youth, we started the event with a series of empathy exercises and case studies.  

The second part of the day of facilitation was devoted towards brainstorming the many ways this group of leaders would co-collaborate and support one another. We took stock of collective networks, funding pools, legislative support, and areas of expertise. We ran design sprints to get attendees to think outside the box, and prototype, test, and pitch their ideas to the group. We ended the day with facilitated discussion of next steps, identifying priorities, agreeing on next meeting time, and delegation of roles.