ABSTRACT
Participatory workshops can be for any number, up to 200 or perhaps even more. Those considered ‘large’ here are with around 30 or more people. The largest I have known began with 180 (in Chiang Mai in Thailand) but half left after a time, I was told, because of language and acoustics. Paradoxically, large workshops are often easier to manage than small ones. With size can come animation, noise, movement and a certain freedom for participants: safe anonymity to shelter the shy, space to grumble for the disgruntled and cover to slip away for the bored. The challenges for facilitators are also a special sort of fun.
