Understanding your audience
A key part of effective workshop planning is understanding who your audience will be.
If you have been invited to present, do you know who your audience is expected to be? If you are developing a workshop from scratch, who are you aiming it at?
Will your participants be beginner, intermediate, or experienced writers? Perhaps they will be a mixture of all three. Are they likely to be focused on a specific genre or writing process? Will they be academics, students or hobbyists?
Why audience matters
Knowing your audience will help you tailor the workshop to their needs and expectations. For example, the language you use with academic participants will differ from the language you use with a community-based workshop in a public library. Certain groups may require different levels of understanding and background knowledge; some audiences will benefit from handouts covering definitions and examples, while others may prefer in-depth discussions or hands-on exercises. You may also need to consider using appropriate content and examples, depending on the age of your intended audience.
By planning with participants in mind, your workshop will become more focused, useful and impactful.
Creating Participant Profiles
Good workshop design starts with a clear understanding of your likely participants. Once useful tool for this is to create Participant Profiles. These are based on imaginary personas that represent typical members of your intended audience. Creating up to three Participant Profiles can help clarify your decisions throughout the planning process.
When creating Participant Profiles, consider including the following details:
- Name
- Demographic information (age, occupation, educational background, etc)
- Short description (background, hobbies, goals, etc)
- Experience / Background (as it relates to your workshop)
- Reason for attending your workshop
- Barriers to success (lack of confidence, limited time, unfamiliarity with the topic, etc)
Example Participant Profiles
| Maya | Daniel | Elanor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demographic Information (age, occupation, educational background, etc) | Age: 27 B.A in Graphic Deign | Age: 42 B.S in Biology and Teaching Credential | Age: 68 No formal education past high school Currently retired |
| Short Description (Background, hobbies, goals, etc) | Hobbies: Sketching, colleting art books Goals: Learn how to translate visual ideas into written stories and explore world-building | Middle school teacher who journals but has not written fiction Goals: Possibly start a fiction blog | Retired from long career in arts communication Hobbies: watercolour painting Goals: write stories insipred by family’s immigrant history |
| Experience / Background as it related to your workshop | No formal education in writing since leaving university | No formal education in writing since leaving university Writes as a hobby | Writing as a hobby for years but no formal education since high school |
| Reason for attending your workshop | Wants to gain foundational story telling skills and confidence | Hoping to gain narrative structure tools and pacing techniques | Hopes for tools for shaping coherent narratives, and a supportive community |
| Barriers to success | Limited knowledge of story structure and grammar; struggles to finish projects | Unsure how to structure engaging plots | Tends to over-edit early drafts and gets stuck |
By designing with your Participant Profiles in mind, you’ll be better equipped to design content, choose activities, and deliver a workshop that resonates with your audience.
