Delivery Matters

Stories behind workshop plans,
sticky notes and markers.

Featured

A step-by-step guide to planning a workshop

All posts

A woman working at her desk with the SessionLab planner on her computer screen

How to organize a workshop with SessionLab

In the next few pages, I’ll walk you through how I move from a blank canvas to the first version of a workshop design. I’ll illustrate how, as a freelance facilitator, I use SessionLab step-by-step to organize information, sketch out early ideas, and create a draft agenda, ready to share. SessionLab is my facilitation back office: it’s the virtual desk where I do all the preparation work for each workshop, session, and event. It allows me to keep my notes in one place, design efficiently, and easily collaborate with clients, co-facilitators, and other people with a stake in the success of my next workshop. Let’s see how. Facilitation is often…

Group of colleagues enjoying an ice breaker

67 engaging icebreakers [that your team won’t find cheesy]

Whether it's kicking off a meeting or getting to know new team members, an effective icebreaker can help set the right tone and help build connections. But how do you choose the the right icebreaker that will delight your team, rather that frustrate them? In this post, we'll share a collection of tried and tested icebreakers you can use to engage and energize groups of any size. Whether you just want to have fun, encourage team building or level-up your meetings and workshops, there's an icebreaker here for you. Icebreakers are short activities designed to get a group warmed up and engaged at the beginning of a workshop or meeting.…

How First Advantage improved efficiency and stakeholder satisfaction with SessionLab

First Advantage Corporation (NASDAQ: FA), a leading provider of global software and data in the HR technology industry, dedicated to empowering organizations to make informed hiring decisions while ensuring compliance and enhancing workplace safety. As a global organization, First Advantage serves customers in over 200 countries and territories with a staff of about 10,000 employees in 19 countries. First Advantage’s Learning and Development team has a large number of training requirements they need to fulfill. Presented with opportunities for improved efficiency and enhanced collaboration, First Advantage needed to move away from spreadsheets and to a centralized, automated solution that helped their learning & development design team to develop high-quality materials…

How Norconsult saves time and designs better learning experiences with SessionLab

Norconsult is one of the leading multidisciplinary engineering and design consultancies in the Nordics, with approximately 6,500 employees across around 140 offices in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Poland and Finland. With a strong commitment to developing internal talent and creating innovation, Norconsult runs a range of leadership training programs with hundreds of participants. To deliver high-quality, engaging sessions at scale, HR Development Specialist Christian Valentiner and the team needed a smarter, more flexible way to plan and manage their training programs. That’s where SessionLab came in. A team-focused approach to leadership and project management development Norconsult’s competence development team in HR plays a central role in developing leaders and project…

37 meeting reflections to open and close your meetings

Meetings are often packed with discussions, decisions, and action items—but how often do we take the time to pause and reflect? Incorporating reflection activities into meetings can transform them from routine check-ins into meaningful conversations that drive clarity, connection, and action. A well-placed reflection exercise can help a group start a meeting with intention, process insights mid-session, and close with a sense of clarity and purpose. Whether you're facilitating a brainstorming session, a team retrospective, or a strategic planning discussion, reflection activities create space for deeper thinking, alignment, and engagement. This post explores a range of simple yet powerful meeting reflection activities, from quick check-ins to structured debriefs. No matter…

Learning and development team running a training session

How a global pharma company created a consistent design process with SessionLab

In large organizations, maintaining consistency and efficiency in training design can be a challenge – especially when collaborating across locations and teams. Without a standardized process, it’s easy to waste time on inefficient processes and compromise service delivery too. By adopting SessionLab, the Learning & Development team at a leading global pharmaceutical company were able to create a structured, reliable process. Let's see how. The challenge: inconsistent, inefficient training design As organizations grow, there comes a growing need to standardize processes and ensure high quality training delivery. Trainers and learning designers need to be able to design and adapt sessions without getting bogged down in sloppy tools. Leaders need to…

How workshops.work helps multinational companies build deeper connections with SessionLab

workshops.work is a boutique agency delivering corporate training in 15 languages. Their clients include large multinational corporations who want to strengthen communication, develop soft skills and improve psychological safety. Myriam Hadnes, founder of workshops.work, has used SessionLab since 2017 to help her team of facilitators collaborate effectively on every part of the workshop design process. Let's see how. Simple collaboration in a shared workspace With a network of 25 facilitators spread over 17 countries, effective collaboration and communication is vital to the team at workshops.work. "We all need access to the same flow and have the opportunity to add comments if something is not clear or doesn't work out." With…

How to make training more engaging: 8 essential tips

You can have the best content in the world, the most updated statistics and information, but when it comes to training, great training content is just not enough. We’ve all sat through sessions that feel like (and in fact, are) a slow march through a PowerPoint deck. The information might be useful, but it is not memorable. In an era of distractions and short attention spans, what can help us design training that actually sticks? In this article, we will look at 8 essential tips to make in-person or virtual training more engaging, with plenty of real-life stories and examples from my own experience training newbies in facilitation and group…

College students in a classroom playing an icebreaker game

31 icebreaker games for students

Starting a new school year or welcoming a fresh group of students? Effective student icebreakers can transform those first awkward moments into moments of connection and learning. Whether you’re working with young learners, high school students, or even college-level participants, setting the right tone and getting a read on the energy of the room can help you create an engaging learning environment. From quick physical icebreakers to student discussion starters, this list of activities will help you create a classroom where students feel welcome, encouraged, and ready to participate. Why use icebreakers in the classroom? The first moments of any lesson, lecture or workshop can have a profound effect on…

33 active learning activities and strategies for engaging learners

Active learning strategies can turn passive, unengaging material into memorable learning experiences. When trainees and students are enlisted in their own learning the results can be transformative, but what instructional methods are most effective? In this guide, we'll explore experiential learning techniques you can use to improve student engagement and improve knowledge retention too. Whether you're a trainer, teacher or facilitator, you'll find proven activities to improve the participant experience. What is active learning? Active learning is an educational approach that seeks to engage participants directly in the learning process. Rather than learning passively, like listening to a lecture, learners actively engage in their own learning, often through group discussions,…

14 impactful leadership training topics for effective leaders

Leaders are responsible not only for achieving business results but also for guiding, inspiring, and supporting their teams. However, great leadership doesn’t happen by chance—it requires continuous learning and development. Investing in leadership training ensures that managers and executives develop the skills needed to navigate challenges, drive innovation, and lead with empathy. Below, we explore the most essential leadership training topics, explaining why they matter, how they contribute to business success, and what to consider when facilitating these sessions. What is leadership training? Leadership training is a structured learning process designed to develop and refine the skills necessary for effective leadership. Leadership training can come in formats ranging from bespoke…

5 qualities of a good trainer and how to cultivate them

The qualities of a good trainer are a combination of personal traits and training skills that ensure training and education sessions are productive and memorable. Demonstrating the qualities of a good trainer can transform workshops and training courses into experiences. This helps learning retention, making it much more likely that new learnings will be applied in practice. In professional development and instructor-led workplace training, a good trainer can make the difference between delivering a boring and ineffective course that leaves participants disinterested and disengaged, and a successful learning experience. Some of the qualities typically listed as essential for great trainers include the ability to listen and adapt to the audience,…

Design more engaging sessions
with ease

Drag, drop and reuse content. Calculate time automatically. Collaborate in real-time. Create your next session
in minutes (not hours) with SessionLab.