Several hundred alumni write a manifesto in one day
Réseau OmbelleInvented name
The alumni network of an international leadership programme wanted to bring together very different cohorts and countries around one question: what future are we building? Everyone had a “home” team, put together by flowAI using diversity rules. In the afternoon people scattered across workshops, then came back to their table to write the manifesto.
- Sector
- Alumni network of a leadership programme
- Size
- Several hundred participants, many nationalities
- Format
- One day
- In the room
- Several hundred alumni from many nationalities and cohorts, speakers, and co-facilitators drawn from the network.
Context
- For a major gathering of the network, very different cohorts and countries have to come together.
- The question: what future are we building?
- The goal: a collective contribution, in the form of a manifesto.
The challenge
Give everyone a place to belong in a crowd of several hundred. And bring parallel workshops together into a single text.
The design
Key ideas
“Home” teams composed by the machine
Some thirty teams of about ten, composed automatically by flowAI: maximum mix by nationality, then age, then gender. Experts, speakers and the organising team are spread across tables. One numbered table per team, in reading order, with speakers close to the stage.
Home, workshops, home
In the morning, plenary sessions, seated by team. Before lunch, each team shares what inspired it and decides how to split up for the afternoon. Then everyone goes to a panel or workshop, and comes back to their table to prepare the report-out.
Success seen from four angles
An interactive module, “what is success?”, from four angles: personal, company, national, European. With a live quiz.
Workshops run by alumni
Themed workshops at tables of seven to ten, in several spaces, with co-facilitators from the network taking notes as they go.
A manifesto in three rounds
Back at its table, each team adds its contribution to the manifesto in three successive rounds. Then each workshop reports back in plenary.
How the time was used
- Open
- Explore
- Decide
- Celebrate
9.30amOpen
Opening
Institutional opening, seated by team.
Open
Keynote
A long-term view, with Q&A.
Explore
What is success?
Four angles, a live quiz.
Explore
Cross keynotes
Technology and AI, economics, geopolitics.
Decide
Teams meet
Shared inspirations, choosing the afternoon split.
NoonCelebrate
Lunch and photo
Lunch by team with the speakers, then a photo of all participants.
Explore
Panels and workshops
Parallel panels with sign-up capped by room size, then themed workshops.
Decide
Back home
Preparing the report-out, contributing to the manifesto.
4.30pmCelebrate
Report-out
Each workshop reports back in plenary.
The seminar in miniature
Seated by “home” team
Some thirty teams of about ten, composed by flowAI: as mixed as possible by nationality, then by age, then by gender. Experts, speakers and organisers are spread across the tables, numbered in reading order. Everyone has an anchor point in the crowd, right from the institutional opening.
Keynotes and success
A first keynote opens up a long-term vision, with questions and answers. Then an interactive module asks “what is success?” from four angles, with a live quiz. Finally, crossed keynotes: technology and AI, economics, geopolitics. Plenty to feed the question of the day: what future are we building?
Lunch by team
Before sitting down to eat, each team shares what inspired it in the morning and decides how its members will spread across the afternoon’s panels and workshops. Then lunch is taken by team, with the speakers seated among the participants.
Everyone in the picture
After lunch, all the participants gather for one single photo. Several hundred alumni, from many nationalities and graduating years, in the same frame: a picture of the network brought together, just before everyone goes their own way for the afternoon.
Panels and workshops
Everyone goes to the panel of their choice, with sign-up capped by room size, then to a themed workshop. Tables of seven to ten, across several spaces, with co-facilitators from the network taking notes as they go. Teams scatter so they can come back with more to share.
Back home
Everyone returns to their “home” team’s table with what they heard in their workshop. The team prepares its report-out and adds its contribution to the manifesto in three successive rounds. The parallel workshops converge into one single text.
Report-out
In the late afternoon, each workshop comes up on stage to report back in plenary. The day ends with the collective manifesto, and summaries in English are then produced from the recordings.
The materials, redrawn
The room plan
- Tables with speakers
- “Home” teams of about ten
Home, workshops, home
Deliverables and follow-up
- The collective manifesto.
- Write-ups in English, produced from the recordings.
AI and digital tools
flowAI composed and seated the teams from the diversity rules, then produced the room plans and badges. The English write-ups were produced from the recordings.
What we take away
- With several hundred people, logistics run on explicit diversity rules, applied by the machine.
- The “home” team gives everyone an anchor all day, even when each person spends the afternoon in a different workshop.
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