Planning and facilitating focus groups workshop

The workshop covers all elements involved in planning and facilitating focus groups. It covers the logistics, techniques to attract attendees, activities to engage participants, techniques to improve facilitation, and how to record and share the results of the focus group.

The workshop is interactive in nature, with discussion points throughout, and an opportunity to try focus group activities out for yourself. There will be the opportunity to share your own experiences, and learn from other attendees' experiences. You will leave the workshop equipped with the knowledge to enable you to plan and facilitate your own focus groups, and will have begun the planning process for your next focus group.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

• Understand the value of focus groups and consider when they would be appropriate
• Plan, organise and facilitate a focus group
• Prepare activities for different types of focus groups to maximise the information collected
• Report findings from focus groups to different stakeholders.

Feedback from previous workshop attendees

“Excellent range of activities. I now feel more confident to organise focus groups.”

“Very thorough information and an excellent balance between theory and practical.”

“It has given me a theoretical and practical grounding for ideas and activities I have seen in use and participated in. I now have a clear idea of what sort of activities I would / wouldn't use in different focus groups, and a good understanding of how people react differently to activities.”

“The activities were really useful to see how to make focus groups more interactive.”

“The handbook and individual exercises were laid out really clearly and will be really useful in future. The presentation was really clear and easy to follow.”

“The planning template will be invaluable.”

Further information

If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact the workshop facilitator, Jo Alcock.