Collaborative workshop with target-groups

Example: Workshop with investors and property owners organised by studio urban catalyst, Berlin

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

POINT OF DEPARTURE
In the realm of temporary uses the different stakeholders are not used to collaborating. In many cases they have sceptical attitudes towards each other and don´t know anything about the tactics, motivations and aims of the other actors. The relationship between temporary users and property owner/ landlord is often not or just temporarily formalised by contracts. The real circumstances reveal that property owner and users easily get into conflicts: The users themselves try to unfold their activities as fast as possible to exploit the advantages of the discovered niche while the owner intends to limit the timegap within the economic development cycle caused by residual areas. The municipality usualy plays a more passive role mainly surveying legal rules and planning procedures.

AIM
Individual workshops with one target group are a convincing means to improve the understanding among the actors and to generate the basis for win-win situations in the field of temporary use. In contrast to tools such as the democratic dialogue or the stakeholder management workshops with target-groups adress only one type of actor. Of course all tools can be applicated in combination. The workshop tool aims at making the participants sensitive for the coordinates of urban transformation processes with temporary users. Moreover another objective is to illustrate the motivations and visions of the other players, to elaborate advantages for own strategies and tackle questions of impediments and conflicts.

STRATEGY
A professional organisation of the workshop is inavitable to adress a wide range of representatives of one actor group. The workshops framework should be composed by several statements of experts focussing on background information as well as on innovative strategies. The most effective way to enter in a fruitful debate is to engage avant-garde experts who also represent the target-group. Selected statements of representatives of other players will be necesary for feedbacks and to keep in touch with the ground. There´s no doubt that statements hold dangers of an one way communication. The workshop should be completed by small moderated working groups tackling specific items with not more than 15 participants.

EXAMPLE
In the Berlin project the workshop took place with property owners and investors. On the one hand the meeting served to discuss specific problems and conflicts, on the other hand the debate focussed on strategies and models for action which encourage landowners to play a more active role during alternative development processes.

`reader comments`

Add a comment