A
Different
Way

Of Bringing People Together

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Designing Catalytic Events, Workshops and Meetings

‘Once you’ve experienced this type of event, you won’t want to go back to the old way ever again.’

For over twenty-five years nowheregroup have been working behind the scenes and at the highest level with a diverse array of global corporations all over the world, helping them break through some of their biggest challenges, develop breakthrough strategies and innovations, build purpose-driven and peak performing cultures, and design large scale transformation journeys.

A critical part of this work is using our unique practice to design catalytic events, workshops and meetings for senior leaders, teams, communities and eco-systems, as accelerants of change, innovation and transformation.

We operate in the space between leaders, event and production teams, working closely with them all.

We specialise in bringing diverse talent, teams and communities together so they can leap forward. It’s just a different way of thinking about events, workshops and meetings.
Leave our mark

A new approach to events

FROM

Message-based communication events

Developing agenda-driven designs around content and task

Talking about the work

Team building and energiser exercises

Traditional formats – presentations, panels, Q&As, tradeshows…

Replicating, and being limited by, the dominant culture

Giving out random gifts and brandware

People being filled up with more information

Overly worrying about things that don’t make that much difference – particularly around the look and feel

Describing and presenting the change you want

Leaders and teams taking up space and time

TO

Thinking together events – that both inspire new movement and disrupt the status quo

Shaping ‘arc of revelation’ designs that beautifully weave content and human process together to create peak and pivotal experiences

Doing the work in real-time in more agile, self-organising and productive ways

Building powerful teams and communities as an outcome of doing breakthrough work together

Post-conventional ways of working with time, space, energy and information

Having experiences of the culture you want to move towards in action

Creating signs, symbols & artefacts that support the work

People making-meaning of and shaping the information to make it theirs

Paying much more attention to the details that shift human experience, helping you deepen connection and think together

Catalysing systemic change and building momentum throughout the whole experience – including in the prep for, during, and as a result of, the event

Leaders and teams learning how to turn up differently and host and hold the space for their people

FROM

Message-based communication events

TO

Thinking together events – that both inspire new movement and disrupt the status quo

Developing agenda-driven designs around content and task

Shaping ‘arc of revelation’ designs that beautifully weave content and human process together to create peak and pivotal experiences

Talking about the work

Doing the work in real-time in more agile, self-organising and productive ways

Team building and energiser exercises

Building powerful teams and communities as an outcome of doing breakthrough work together

Traditional formats – presentations, panels, Q&As, tradeshows…

Post-conventional ways of working with time, space, energy and information

Replicating, and being limited by, the dominant culture

Having experiences of the culture you want to move towards in action

Giving out random gifts and brandware

Creating signs, symbols & artefacts that support the work

People being filled up with more information

People making-meaning of and shaping the information to make it theirs

Overly worrying about things that don’t make that much difference – particularly around the look and feel

Paying much more attention to the details that shift human experience, helping you deepen connection and think together

Describing and presenting the change you want

Catalysing systemic change and building momentum throughout the whole experience – including in the prep for, during, and as a result of, the event

Leaders and teams taking up space and time

Leaders and teams learning how to turn up differently and host and hold the space for their people

Exhibition

This way of working

Catalyses moments of breakthrough by design.

Significantly improves performance in the known and from the unknown.

Develops quality of relationship, psychological safety and level of trust needed to do breakthrough work.

Creates and holds purposeful spaces in which everyone can fully turn up.

Enables teams, and communities of teams, to hold and work with creative and emotional tension.

Catches those sublime moments of insight and experience that irreversibly shift us.

Our target audience

4 ways we can help

1. Large Scale Events (Co-Creative Conferences)
  • Working with groups from 100-10,000+, F2F and/or virtually
  • Elevating whole populations through common peak and pivotal experiences
  • Building communities by deepening shared understanding, focusing collective attention and intention, tapping into collective wisdom, and co-creating optimal way forwards
  • Iconic events for launching and accelerating transformation, new business strategies, cultural change, and eco-systems with internal and/or external partners
Large Scale Events
2. Catalytic Workshops
  • Working with groups of 15-150 – F2F or virtually, single or sequences of sessions
  • Developing breakthrough strategies, innovations and solutions for business-critical issues and intractable challenges
  • Helping project and intact teams accelerate a critical issue to first insight and breakthrough against the clock
  • Bringing together complex stakeholder groups, internally, across a value chain, and/or from an eco-system to explore new opportunities / challenges together
Catalytic Workshops
3. Off-site leadership team and community meetings
  • Typically focused on executive and senior leadership teams – F2F or virtually
  • Creating the core energy, shared vision and strategy, quality of relationship and level of collaboration needed within a team and/or across teams and organisations
  • Using frameworks for strategy, innovation, leadership and culture to make thinking together visual, elevated and transformational
  • Resourcing teams to be greater than the sum of their parts
Off-site leadership
4. Transforming the way you meet
  • This way of working can also transform meeting cultures, at scale
  • We’ve codified a way of designing and running catalytic meetings, as well as collated a unique collection of Micro-Skills that shift the way people turn up, relate, think, lead and meet. Available through online and in person training
  • By upskilling leaders and teams, at scale, you can: save enormous amounts of time and energy; significantly increase productivity; unlock new levels of creativity; and enhance psychological safety, wellbeing and resilience
Transforming the way you meet

Face-to-face, virtual and blended

Over the last 25 years we have brought people together in some of the most amazing places and spaces around the world. Our practice also works powerfully in a virtual environment.

During 2020 we moved rapidly to virtual to help our clients lean into this moment to accelerate change, innovation and transformation, as well as maintaining productivity.

This accelerated our learning and the development of innovative practices and ways of working that can make virtual meetings as good as, if not better than, face-to-face.

We now work creatively across a variety of virtual platforms, blending them to get the best possible experience, and taking advantage of the rapid evolution of technology.

Our focus is to find technology that is ‘fit for purpose’ and doesn’t become a distraction – because ultimately the aim is to create purposeful, productive and profound experiences for your people.

pre, during and post event

Pre Event
  • Design
  • Curating content
  • Coaching and rehearsing TED Talks
  • Preparing leaders and teams
  • Working with event production teams
  • Developing ‘thinking together’ frameworks
  • Creating signs, symbols & artefacts
During Event
  • Setting up the event / spaces
  • Catalysing / MC-ing – holding the space
  • Directing the whole experience
  • Coaching leaders
  • Adapting designs in real time to support what’s happening in the room
  • Capturing output
Post Event
  • Debriefing the learning – as an intervention in a human system
  • Packaging and editing outputs
  • Activating momentum and follow up through catalytic frameworks and skills
  • Creating design playbooks to scale and replicate
    internally
Debriefing the learning – as an inte
Learn and experience more

Events
Workshops
Meetings

Contact us for a different way of designing Catalytic
Events, Workshops and Meetings