150 early-career rail professionals at work on day three of Next Generation Rail.

Conference and event facilitation · Asia and Europe

Conferences that achieve more than a programme of talks

You want the people at your conference, congress or summit to connect, learn from each other and leave inspired to act. We design and facilitate the interactive parts, or host the whole event.

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150 early-career rail professionals at work on day three of Next Generation Rail.

What we facilitate

Interactive sessions, summits and whole-event hosting

Associations, global companies and public bodies bring us in to make large gatherings participative, productive and memorable.

Interactive conference sessionsTable work, Open Space and LEGO® Serious Play® for 100 to 300+ delegates.
Leadership conferencesSenior leaders turning policy into proposals and project plans.
Summits and congressesMulti-day learning journeys for industry leaders, with outputs to take home.
Conference hosting and chairingA strong, connecting host who keeps the event on track without becoming its centre.
Collective impact and multi-stakeholder eventsLaunching initiatives where no single organisation can solve the problem.
Online and hybrid eventsDesigns that keep remote delegates as engaged as those in the room.

What you get

Before, during and after your event

Every assignment starts with a conversation about what you need to happen because of the session. Then we design backwards from there, using the ProMeet method.

Before
- Programme co-design with your organising team and speakers
- Interactive formats matched to the room, the numbers and the culture
- Briefings for table hosts and the facilitator team
On the day
- Hosting, chairing or facilitating the interactive sessions
- Short inputs followed by purposeful work at every table
- Synthesis back to the whole room, so delegates feel heard
After
- Delegate outputs: booklets, illustrated summaries or a book
- Insights for organisers to shape next year's programme
- Evaluation data from live polling

Association executives at IMEX Association Day in Frankfurt

Design rule

No more than ten minutes of input before people do something with it

Evaluations at IMEX Association Day showed delegates wanted more interaction with speakers, content and each other. So we put the participant at the centre: short inputs, then facilitated work in tables, Open Space or LEGO® Serious Play®, then synthesis back to the whole room.

The same rule shaped DENSO's leadership conference, Coca-Cola's Together We Move and the MOVE Congress in Rome, where delegates opened each day by singing.

Case studies

Examples, with results

Open any card to see the results and what the client said.

Professional Convention Management AssociationLSP

Facilitating the world's best meeting planners

26 industry leaders people3 days

Led by Sean Blair

A global medical meetings summit in Scotland. Five learning workshops helped planners of 5,000-person medical congresses build innovation and participation strategies to take home.

Details and feedback

Scenarios for the future of medical congresses
Take-home innovation strategies for every participant
A 362-page book of outputs, produced during the summit

"Sean Blair is one of the finest program facilitators I've ever had the pleasure of working with. He is amazingly thoughtful in his approach and his preparation is impeccable."Kelly Peacy, Senior Vice President, Education and Events, PCMA

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Coca-Cola Europe

Together We Move

160 from 22 countries people2 days

Led by Sean Blair

Grassroots sports activists from across Europe combined TED-style talks with five ProMeet workshops to find the ideas that get more people more active.

Details and feedback

Fourteen booklets of insights and ideas
Best practice the whole network could use

"Sean successfully implemented the ProMeet-workshop methodology which unlocked the great thinking of +160 participants from 22 countries."Wouter Vermeulen, Corporate Responsibility Director, Health and Wellness, Coca-Cola Europe

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Medtronic

Hosting a 350-person Nordic kick-off

350 people1 day

Led by Sean Blair

Conference host, interactive session facilitator and interviewer of leaders and patients at Medtronic's annual Nordic, Baltic and Polish kick-off in Copenhagen.

Details and feedback

Panel discussions on complex healthcare topics
Patient stories that inspired the whole region

"We really appreciated Sean's professional, empathetic and humoristic way to engage the audience."Marianne Reedtz Sparrevohn, Senior PR and Communications Manager, Medtronic

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DENSO International Europe

European and Japanese leaders, leading together

82 from 10 countries people1 day

Led by Sean Blair

DENSO's annual European leadership conference reviewed a three-year policy from Japan, named the biggest implementation challenges and planned projects to meet them.

Details and feedback

18 proposals and 9 project plans
Better innovation, communication and collaboration
Leaders took ProMeet tools back to their countries

"The European and Japanese leaders liked your facilitation style, inviting inquiry, without setting the expectation of a right / wrong answer."Roberto Vitagliano, Director, European Human Resources, DENSO International Europe

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World Animal Protection

Launching the Global Ghost Gear Initiative

75 people2 days

Led by Sean Blair

Experts from the fishing industry, science, civil society and international institutions met to launch a collective impact initiative on lost fishing gear.

Details and feedback

Enthusiastic agreement on the constitution
A steering group appointed after hustings and a vote
Three working groups with draft 12-month plans

"Your advice on the agenda and your facilitation were both excellent. We have received a lot of positive feedback on the meeting and in particular your facilitation."Katherine George, Project Manager, Global Ghost Gear Initiative

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IMEX GroupLSP

Association Day: next-generation associations

320 from 40 countries people6 hours

Led by Sean Blair

Designed and led with a team of IAF facilitators the day before IMEX Frankfurt: plenaries, nine parallel workshops and LEGO® Serious Play® insight on the future of associations.

Details and feedback

The four biggest challenges associations face
Insights from nine breakout sessions
1,000+ gridcards and 66 LEGO® models

"Sean has almost single-handedly taken us on a journey from wish list 'what if's' to help improve our programme to a reality of total delegate engagement and interaction."Natasha Richards, Manager, Partnerships and Association Relations, IMEX Group

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International Sport and Culture Association

MOVE Congress, Rome

300 from 50 countries people2 days

Led by Sean Blair

A global congress that used the city as a workshop and opened each day with the delegates singing and recording an anthem together.

Details and feedback

Six idea banks created during the congress
90% of participants left with new ideas and inspiration

"Sean can walk the thin line of being a strong and connecting moderator without being the centre of the conference."Mogens Kirkeby, President, International Sport and Culture Association

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RSSBLSP

The railway of the future, in bricks

150 people2 hours

Led by Sean Blair

On the last day of the Next Generation Rail conference, early-career researchers reflected on their learning and built visions of the future railway.

Details and feedback

150 individual models of personal learning
36 shared models of the future railway

"The LEGO Serious Play session went really well and I heard lots of positive comments on the day."Giulia Lorenzini, Partnerships Manager, RSSB

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Innovation Unit and Department for Education

Next Practice in school leadership

110 people2 days

Led by Sean Blair

School leaders identified the challenges driving change, then worked in Open Space on ideas for field trials of new models of leadership.

Details and feedback

21 detailed field-trial ideas
Five school consortia selected for support
Three further rounds of Next Practice over two years

"This system provided the best structure for our meetings that I have ever seen."Mike Gibbons, Innovation Unit

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Why it works

Experience you can lean on

Scale

Big rooms since 1995

As Design Director at the Design Council, Sean conceived and hosted 'Where? The Future Starts Here' for 1,100 people at the Odeon Leicester Square. He has hosted events at the London Palladium, Sadler's Wells, the IMAX and Tate Modern.

Cultures

Clarity in complex cultures

International conferences need extra care for people with different cultural backgrounds and language levels. At DENSO we also helped communicate a policy that originated in Japan.

Outputs

Delegates take the thinking home

Every interactive session produces a record: booklets, illustrated summaries, videos or a book, like PCMA's 362-page summit book.

Sean Blair is one of the finest program facilitators I've ever had the pleasure of working with. He is amazingly thoughtful in his approach and his preparation is impeccable.

Kelly PeacySenior Vice President, Education and Events, PCMA

Sean has almost single-handedly taken us on a journey from wish list 'what if's' to help improve our programme to a reality of total delegate engagement and interaction.

Natasha RichardsManager, Partnerships and Association Relations, IMEX Group

Sean successfully implemented the ProMeet-workshop methodology which unlocked the great thinking of +160 participants from 22 countries.

Wouter VermeulenCorporate Responsibility Director, Coca-Cola Europe

Questions

Common questions

Short, direct answers about how we work.

Can you host our whole conference, not just a session?

Yes. Sean has hosted conferences of up to 1,100 people, interviewing leaders, chairing panels and running interactive sessions.

How do you make a 300-person session interactive?

Table groups with clear tasks, gridcards to capture every view, live polling, Open Space and LEGO® Serious Play®, with short inputs and regular synthesis back to the whole room.

Do you work with event agencies?

Yes. We often work alongside the agency that produces the event, as at Medtronic's Nordic kick-off with Plus Agency.

Do you facilitate conferences in Asia?

Yes. We are based in Singapore and facilitate events across Asia and Europe, in person and hybrid.

You don't want a meeting. You want an outcome.

Tell us what you need to achieve. We will help you design the time together to get there, and reply within two working days.

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