How to Plan Your Own DIY Workshop

​By Nicole Mazzeo

You, too can put on a workshop! You don’t need to be an official “educator” or have certification (or even a college degree).
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You do need passion for the subject and willingness to put time and effort into it. And you should know a good amount about the topic you’re going to cover. I recommend reading things on the internet (or, you know, books) – and fact checking anything you want to use. You can do it!

​Steps for making your workshop happen:

1. Come up with a concept for your workshop.

What are you interested in talking about and/or exploring with a group of people? What are you excited about right now?

2. Come up with a name for your workshop, and write a brief description of what it’s about.

What’s the point? What will participants get out of it? Come up with one or more concrete goals for the workshop.

3. Find somewhere that you can reserve space affordably (ideally for free).

If you’re in Boston, this list of supportive venues will seriously help you out. One approach is to email places, include the workshop name and description in your email, and ask if they will let you use their space for your workshop.

​Things to consider when choosing a venue:

• Is it wheelchair accessible?

• Is it near public transportation?

• Is it in a predominately white neighborhood / How easy is it for people who are coming from predominately Black/Brown neighborhoods to get to it?
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• If it has a rental fee, will you be able to have flexible ticket pricing options for people who can’t (or struggle to) afford to buy a ticket?

4. Set a date and time with the venue.

5. Tell people about your workshop!

​Some options for promotion:

• Make a Facebook, Eventbrite, or Meetup event.

• Send out an email to anyone you think might be interested. Include any organizations in the area who are doing similar work.

• Post about it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. etc. etc.

• Talk to people about it in person! In my experience, this has the highest success rate.

• Post about it on any websites that have event listings. Here is a list of suggested places to promote events online.

• Print flyers and post them everywhere! Telephone poles, coffee shops, health centers, etc. Anywhere with a bulletin board or (if they’re okay with it) window space will do.

• Contact local indie newspapers, magazines, etc. to see if they want to list your event, or even feature an interview with you or something.
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• Tip: Doing lots of promotion can sometimes make you feel pressure for the workshop to be perfect. If this is your first ever workshop, you might not want to promote it that hard. Maybe you only want a few of your friends there, so you can practice your skills in a lower stakes situation. Or maybe you are confident about what you have to say to the world, and you want a big turnout. This is totally up to your judgment.

6. Make an outline of your workshop.

​Here’s a super basic outline to get you started:

• Introduce yourself and why you’re doing this.

• Introduce the topic.

• Lecture, interactive activities, pair/group discussions, etc.
  - Role plays
  - Talking in pairs/groups about their thoughts, ideas, answering a question/prompt, solving a problem, etc.
  - Writing their thoughts down, making a mind map, etc.
  - Something hands-on where participants get to be physically active.
  - Question and answer (can be anonymous, using flashcards).
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• Closing reflections; thank you for coming; info on how to stay in the loop with your work and future workshops/events.

7. Make handouts.

Make some resource lists, zines, a print out of a relevant blog post you wrote, etc. to pass out. Optional, but it’s nice to give people something to look at and take home.

8. Show up and make it happen!

Be friendly, actually listen to people, and have fun. It’s okay if everything doesn’t go perfectly.

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I hope this is helpful! Also, for lots more tips and resources on organizing sexuality events, including free sexuality graphics, discussion outlines, good places to find sexuality info, check out the ​Resources for Sexuality Educators & Activists page on our website.