25th April, 2014, Pixel A – Block: New territory! READ Alliance had never ventured into the silicon city before. The team had no idea how the workshop would shape up. By 10 am the exhibits were up, chairs arranged, Ideation templates piled and tea brewed! Participants had begun taking their seats well before time – The team was excited!
By 10:30 the large hall provided by Azim Premji University had begun getting occupied. The energy was viral! The laughter, the enthusiasm and the joy of doing something meaningful had created a positive charge waiting to be ignited.
Selectors – Brainstorm
The event began with a round of general introductions followed by the pre workshop session on proposal writing.
The teams divided themselves into two groups. One represented proposal writers while the other represented proposal selectors. As each team brainstormed on what the ideal proposal should contain, the views and experiences in the room demonstrated that the doubts and demands of these teams would be worth debating on! So be it!
Proposal writers – Brainstorming
An open challenge was declared and both teams had a face off on whether the selecting team would pass the proposal developed by the opposing team. The selectors got to pose questions on Who? What? Why? When? and How?, while the proposal writers answered based on their group interaction. Luckily, the proposal writers got a huge thumbs up – proving that everyone in the hall was ready to write rocking proposals! An interesting aspect that came up was the X – Factor. What makes a proposal STAND OUT? That special something that a panel just can’t ignore!
Yes post this the energy drinks were a must! What followed was a quick Lunch and tea.
Does your proposal have the X – FACTOR?
The Innovation workshop was kick started by Aditya Dev Sood giving his own introduction and then passing around the mike for others to do the same. The catch was every participant had to mention their name, organization and what innovation meant to them in 3 running sentences! What seemed like an impossible task actually proved quite easy as participants wizzed through with some very insightful stories and answers.
The rest of the event was divided into the same 5 stages as described before for the Delhi and Mumbai workshops. For a quick update on what happened in these cities, check the Delhi 0 Delhi and Mumbai Talkies Blogs.
Stage One: Group Interpretations of the Seven Steps to Reading.Â
Groups Interact to discuss their allocated steps
Stage Two: Self Ideation on a solution for Early Reading in India.Â
Participants fill up the A3 Ideation templates made by Team READ
Participants share their ideas
Stage Three: Voting and Top 5 idea selection. Participants were asked to vote for the top 5 ideas. To know more about the ideas generated and the final Top 5, click here.
Participants vote for their top 5 ideas
Stage Four: Group Ideation. 5 Groups are formed based on top 5 ideas. Participants then choose their choice of idea and help improvise on it.
Groups build on top 5 ideas
Stage Five: Group Presentation. It is hoped that this workshop will help individuals understand what is needed to create strong proposals with awesome ideas that are both meaningful and sustainable.
Group presentations
So what made Bengaluru special? The ideas, the people and the energy! This might be the first time READ visited the city but the warm welcome it received is sure to bring it back soon! Kudos to all the participants and a big thank you to Azim Premji Foundation and University!
3 workshops down, it was time for the READ team to head back home. To keep updated follow us on @READ_Alliance…too much energy to keep the team quiet for too long…will be up to something new soon…so stay in touch!
