Evolve Director, Carla Rogers has cleverly turned the rural tradition on of going to market on it’s head into a highly creative and effective facilitation approach. It not only fires the imagination by returning us to our childhood sense of play but it works to achieve results. It even works for cultures that don’t have a ‘market’ tradition in the European sense such as Aboriginal peoples.
The Meeting Marketplace™ has proved a hit from urbania to the most remote communities. The reason for its success among different cultures is because it caters to diversity on all levels – in business, the public sector and community affairs. Just like a real market or trade fair, each participant can choose how, when and on what subjects they engage, giving them maximum agency.
It is fun and interactive, tempting people to get involved while catering for all learning modalities and styles, be they auditory, kinaesthetic, verbal or visual. The Meeting Marketplace™ is an innovative approach for organisations to engage their staff, clients and customers and a perfect tool for strategic business planning, conferences, community and staff engagement.
Success Stories
An Evolve team of 12 facilitated a multi-day National Conference for School Principals, based on Evolve’s Meeting Marketplace approach: “It was a fantastic, unique and enriching professional experience to work with the Evolve team. At all times they displayed a calm and professional manner, quick to focus on solutions and consistently good humoured and accommodating of our frequent last minute changes to requirements and timeframes. Evolve brings genuine passion and experience to their work, and is committed to achieving the best outcomes for clients, adopting a solutions based approach that emphasises good working relationships and cultivates trust”
Evolve worked with the Yalata community to develop the Yalata IPA Management Plan. The Australian Government has cited the approach and plan as an example of best practice: Yalata IPA Draft Healthy Country Plan – practical approach with limited time/ money. Evolve put a very good plan together in a relative short time frame by working closely with lots of Yalata organisations and people. Evolve have a great grasp on the key and unique challenges facing Aboriginal communities and went the extra mile to establish connections throughout the community. Their approach is highly flexible, adapting to changing circumstances and challenges with the aim of making things work on the ground for community. Our main aim was that the plan belonged to the community, this has been achieved!
“The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (formerly FaHCSIA), on behalf of a range of Queensland and Australian government agencies and the Mt Isa Regional Operations Centre (ROC), engaged Evolve to support the remote communities of Mornington Island and Doomadgee prepare Community Safety Action Plans. Evolve employed, trained and coached local Aboriginal community researchers. Using Evolve’s Songlines and Meeting Marketplace approaches, the local team collaborated with all tiers of government, service providers and the entire community to develop and produce community research reports and safety plans that addressed diverse challenges.”