The Right Name, Setting Expectations

Let’s get to the point. There’s a lot in a name. Workshops are out, Sessions are in.

The term “Workshop” (or “Microworkshop”) was setting wrong expectations in the minds of some.

From this week's Twitter Bootstrap Workshop Session

Here’s the feedback from recent presentations. From the recent Twitter Bootstrap workshop:

I ... expected it to be more hands on ... actually coding along and having something to show at the end of the workshop.

and from the Doclayout workshop:

I would have liked to have more time to practise.

Ideas about what is involved in a workshop seem to be pretty set in the minds of many, and we think that's reasonable. Our conclusion, either make them more workshop-like or stop describing them as workshops. Interestingly we didn't get that kind of feedback from the “Websites on a Budget” workshop, perhaps because those who came knew that it had been promoted as a build a website “recipe”.

So..

Moving forward the working title is now “Sessions”. The fact is that where the expectations align with our intent we’re getting reviews like this:

Awesome session today man! I feel alive!

Funny how they called our “workshop” a “session” there. We’re pretty convinced that keeping the format and naming them more appropriately is the right move.

Stay tuned to hear about future workshops sessions.