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.

A Free Local Workshop on Responsive Web Design with Twitter Bootstrap for Website Layout

On Tuesday July 30, 2013, Tutorate Local will be bringing a free workshop on Twitter Bootstrap to Kingston, Jamaica. The idea for the workshop started with a conversation about Responsive Web Design. The more we spoke the more it became apparent that there was a need for a full workshop on the topic. We've decided to make the July 30, 2013 run of the workshop free. We're super excited and based on the number of registrants, we're almost full, it's resonating with others.

Participants in a Tutorate Local workshop held earlier this year in Barbados

The new workshop aims to follow the pattern of previous workshops, it's much less about the slides, after all you could download them and view them on your own time. It's about showing you why this technology is cool (uhm useful) and how you can use it to solve real problems. If you only walk away understanding how it works we haven't done our job, the real goal is to point you in the right direction so that you can start to think about how it fits into your web design or development workflow.

Like other Tutorate Local workshops we limit the space so that it feels more intimate, there's a place for large, lecture style presentations, but that's not what we're aiming for.

BYOD Workshop

We try to design these workshops so that you can follow along and encourage you to bring your own device (BYOD). Generally you'll be able to connect your laptop or tablet to the internet and try some of the examples.

At the time of this writing there was space for about 3 more participants. Register now for the Twitter Bootstrap workshop if you need to fast track your knowledge of Responsive Web Design.

Stay Tuned more web design and development workshops are coming.

The Document Layout and Formatting Workshop was a Success

Tutorate Local is the “label” we give to workshops that are offered as small face to face offerings. This is to distinguish from our online offerings. Doclayout is the first one that we’ve offered under the new banner. The next workshop will be Websites on a Budget. A lot of the feedback can be summarized as “I should have known this on my last project”.  To this we say, “you’re” welcome and we hope the knowledge will make your next project 10 times easier".

While the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, we are keen to “decode” the comments that point towards problems. Here’s one example:

“I liked the fact that there weren’t too many participants at the workshop I would have liked to have more time to practise”

What we understand from this comment is that they wanted to be able to try out what they were learning.  Our goal is to provide as much useful information around a topic, so that you can immediately start using it. Towards this end our workshops are loaded with practical examples, if you are quick enough you can follow along and try out the examples. This becomes a balancing act, since we don't want you to spend 40 minutes practicing and as a result lose out on the additional information. We're aware of this challenge and will certainly take it into account with future workshops.

We look forward to future learning experiences.