Facilitation Lab
Facilitation Lab Amsterdam
Practice: Click by Jake Knapp
With Varsha Prasad, Ash Oliver, Rody Vonk, and Marianne Noiman
In Partnership With Miro and Ladies that UX
April 17, 2025
6:30pm - 9pm CEST
Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, this is your safe playground to push boundaries, explore new methods, and level up your facilitation skills!
At Facilitation Lab Amsterdam, facilitators and collaborative leaders come together to experiment, refine, and grow through real-time practice and role-play – because we believe that learning by doing is the best way to develop our facilitation muscle!
We use a tried and tested role play format called Practice Playground, which is a dynamic, hands-on process to help us sharpen our skills in a low-stakes and interactive way.
This is a rare chance to practice in a truly safe and supportive environment, where we can test new techniques, experiment, take risks, and get valuable, constructive feedback from peers.
This month we’re excited to partner with Jake Knapp Jake Knapp (author of NYT best seller Design Sprint) around the launch of his new book Click: How to Make What People Want. Click introduces the Foundation Sprint – 2 day workshop for starting projects the right way. We’ll be practicing the “Differentiators” a key activity from the Foundation Sprint. This exercise helps teams define what makes their projects radically different from competitors, setting the stage for successful innovation.
As a special bonus, we’ll be giving away two copies of Click to attendees. This book offers ten important lessons, a step-by-step playbook for the Foundation Sprint, and memorable stories from companies like Nike, Google, and Slack.
Make the most of your session
Come prepared to role-play and facilitate a new facilitation method or something you’ve been working on. We’ve found attendees who step up benefit the most because they receive tailored feedback, and leave with real growth and confidence.
At Facilitation Lab Amsterdam, facilitators and collaborative leaders come together to experiment, refine, and grow through real-time practice and role-play – because we believe that learning by doing is the best way to develop our facilitation muscle!
We use a tried and tested role play format called Practice Playground, which is a dynamic, hands-on process to help us sharpen our skills in a low-stakes and interactive way.
This is a rare chance to practice in a truly safe and supportive environment, where we can test new techniques, experiment, take risks, and get valuable, constructive feedback from peers.
This month we’re excited to partner with Jake Knapp Jake Knapp (author of NYT best seller Design Sprint) around the launch of his new book Click: How to Make What People Want. Click introduces the Foundation Sprint – 2 day workshop for starting projects the right way. We’ll be practicing the “Differentiators” a key activity from the Foundation Sprint. This exercise helps teams define what makes their projects radically different from competitors, setting the stage for successful innovation.
As a special bonus, we’ll be giving away two copies of Click to attendees. This book offers ten important lessons, a step-by-step playbook for the Foundation Sprint, and memorable stories from companies like Nike, Google, and Slack.
Make the most of your session
Come prepared to role-play and facilitate a new facilitation method or something you’ve been working on. We’ve found attendees who step up benefit the most because they receive tailored feedback, and leave with real growth and confidence.
April 17, 2025
6:30pm - 9pm CEST
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About Facilitation Lab Amsterdam
Facilitation Lab Amsterdam is a monthly in-person meetup for changemakers, collaborative leaders, and facilitators across Amsterdam. Our purpose is to foster learning by doing in a psychologically safe environment, building a strong and supportive community of peers across the region.
As Regional Leads, Varsha, Rody, Ash and Marianne cultivate a space for experimentation and collaborative leadership development, with a focus on people-powered organizational change.
Facilitation Lab Amsterdam is a global network of regions, including other virtual meetups organized by continent and in-person meetups organized by cities. See the region list for a full list of all active meetups.
You can also join us in the Facilitation Lab Community Hub to stay connected with the facilitation community and get reminders of all upcoming events.
Agenda
Opener
An attendee will lead us through an engaging opener
Practice & Role Play
Attendees take turns role-playing as facilitators and participants as we practices different methods
Debrief
After some quiet reflection we’ll debrief the role-play and key learnings
Closer
An attendee will lead us through a purposeful closer
Who Should Attend
Experienced & New Facilitators
Who want to level up their facilitation skills and enhance their ability to effectively engage participants
Chiefs of Staff
Who want to align initiatives across departments and ensure strategic projects are implemented successfully
Product & Project Managers
Who want to steer stakeholders to the best outcomes and learn best practices in stakeholder management
Startups Founders
Who want to learn how to better collaborate with teams
Key Takeaways
Gain hands-on experience with a spectrum of facilitation techniques, from classic to cutting-edge.
Receive immediate, constructive feedback in a nurturing environment to refine your facilitation skills.
Explore the depths of your existing facilitation knowledge and boost your confidence through low-stakes practice sessions.
Realize the potential to learn from anyone, appreciating the value of diverse experiences and perspectives.
Featured Facilitators
Varsha Prasad
Varsha is an innovation strategist and the Founder of IdeaCompass, a consulting practice dedicated to helping leaders, teams, and organizations transform bold ideas into actionable strategies. She specializes in facilitation, design thinking, and business innovation, working with diverse industries including finance, defense, hospitality, enterprise, and the public sector.
With a strong background in customer success and corporate innovation, Varsha has collaborated with organizations globally to drive impactful change through innovation workshops, strategic coaching, and design-led problem-solving. She is passionate about building human-centered solutions that deliver tangible business results.
Varsha’s expertise lies in guiding cross-functional teams, fostering creative collaboration, and simplifying complexity into clear, actionable strategies. Her approach blends structured innovation frameworks with a deep understanding of customer needs, ensuring sustainable transformation for the businesses she works with.
With a strong background in customer success and corporate innovation, Varsha has collaborated with organizations globally to drive impactful change through innovation workshops, strategic coaching, and design-led problem-solving. She is passionate about building human-centered solutions that deliver tangible business results.
Varsha’s expertise lies in guiding cross-functional teams, fostering creative collaboration, and simplifying complexity into clear, actionable strategies. Her approach blends structured innovation frameworks with a deep understanding of customer needs, ensuring sustainable transformation for the businesses she works with.
Ash Oliver
Ash Oliver is the founder of Foster, an experience design and collaboration studio built to help teams work creatively on the inside and resonate with the world on the outside.
Ash is a creative strategist, facilitator, brand builder, design thinker, and event creator… and he’s never been good at fitting into a singular box.
With a multidisciplinary background across business, design, and marketing—and nearly 15 years of experience in tech—Ash has built a reputation as a creative utility player. He’s led brand and community initiatives at early-stage startups, influenced millions of dollars in pipeline, and brought people together to work in new and innovative ways.
Ash’s work operates from the belief that a truly collaborative process not only generates creative results, it drives impressive business outcomes. This is made possible when the wall separating teams and customers is removed—blurring the line between company culture and company brand.
Ash has been featured in PRINT Magazine, was the creator and host of the Maze podcast, The Optimal Path, and the Maze conference, Disco Conf. He has presented, facilitated, and hosted events at companies like Maze, Miro, Dovetail, Figma, UXinsight, OnDeck, Memorisely, Design Lab, Master of Product Management, Product Discovery Conference, Ironhack, and more.
Ash is a creative strategist, facilitator, brand builder, design thinker, and event creator… and he’s never been good at fitting into a singular box.
With a multidisciplinary background across business, design, and marketing—and nearly 15 years of experience in tech—Ash has built a reputation as a creative utility player. He’s led brand and community initiatives at early-stage startups, influenced millions of dollars in pipeline, and brought people together to work in new and innovative ways.
Ash’s work operates from the belief that a truly collaborative process not only generates creative results, it drives impressive business outcomes. This is made possible when the wall separating teams and customers is removed—blurring the line between company culture and company brand.
Ash has been featured in PRINT Magazine, was the creator and host of the Maze podcast, The Optimal Path, and the Maze conference, Disco Conf. He has presented, facilitated, and hosted events at companies like Maze, Miro, Dovetail, Figma, UXinsight, OnDeck, Memorisely, Design Lab, Master of Product Management, Product Discovery Conference, Ironhack, and more.
Rody Vonk
Rody Vonk is an international facilitator, trainer, and speaker in the fields of innovation, design thinking, and business creativity. With over 20 years of experience, he helps organizations around the world kickstart innovation. He breaks down barriers to creativity, stimulates strategic idea generation, and guides teams toward concrete, actionable solutions.
Because real innovation requires collaboration, interaction, and decisiveness, facilitation plays a key role in his approach. Rody knows better than anyone how to turn a standard meeting into an inspiring and productive workshop. His method combines structure with energy and engagement, enabling teams to make decisions faster, collaborate more effectively, and come up with surprising, creative solutions.
Whether it’s a brainstorming session, strategic workshop, or multi-day innovation program, Rody creates a safe and motivating environment where all participants can contribute—and where outcomes gain genuine support.
He works with a wide range of organizations, from non-profits to multinationals, across sectors such as finance, government, telecom, and education. He has delivered training and workshops in places like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, South Africa, Sweden, and the UK.
Rody is the author of the (Dutch) book Innovate: First Believe, Then See, which was nominated for Management Book of the Year in the Netherlands. He also co-authored Online Innovation and Breaking Innovation Barriers, and gave a TEDx talk on creativity and innovation.
Because real innovation requires collaboration, interaction, and decisiveness, facilitation plays a key role in his approach. Rody knows better than anyone how to turn a standard meeting into an inspiring and productive workshop. His method combines structure with energy and engagement, enabling teams to make decisions faster, collaborate more effectively, and come up with surprising, creative solutions.
Whether it’s a brainstorming session, strategic workshop, or multi-day innovation program, Rody creates a safe and motivating environment where all participants can contribute—and where outcomes gain genuine support.
He works with a wide range of organizations, from non-profits to multinationals, across sectors such as finance, government, telecom, and education. He has delivered training and workshops in places like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, South Africa, Sweden, and the UK.
Rody is the author of the (Dutch) book Innovate: First Believe, Then See, which was nominated for Management Book of the Year in the Netherlands. He also co-authored Online Innovation and Breaking Innovation Barriers, and gave a TEDx talk on creativity and innovation.
Marianne Noiman
Marianne is a creative strategist and the founder of Creadastra, a practice dedicated to helping teams, leaders, and organizations unlock their creative potential and bring bold ideas to life. With a strong foundation in facilitation, branding, and content strategy, Marianne designs and guides engaging workshop experiences that turn collaboration into concrete outcomes.
She has worked across sectors – from education and tech to marketing and innovation – using human-centered methods to co-create meaningful change. Her approach combines strategic insight with visual thinking and the smart use of AI tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Krea and Imagen 3 to accelerate both creative and communicative processes.
In addition to her expertise in team development and creative facilitation, Marianne is passionate about making the creative process accessible to everyone. She believes that creativity is not a talent but a way of thinking – and thrives on helping people rediscover their own voice, ideas, and energy.
Her strength lies in translating complexity into clarity, energizing teams, and shaping brand narratives that connect. Whether she’s designing a visual identity, leading a deep-dive strategy session, or helping organizations activate their culture, Marianne brings empathy, playfulness, and sharp strategic thinking to every collaboration.
She has worked across sectors – from education and tech to marketing and innovation – using human-centered methods to co-create meaningful change. Her approach combines strategic insight with visual thinking and the smart use of AI tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Krea and Imagen 3 to accelerate both creative and communicative processes.
In addition to her expertise in team development and creative facilitation, Marianne is passionate about making the creative process accessible to everyone. She believes that creativity is not a talent but a way of thinking – and thrives on helping people rediscover their own voice, ideas, and energy.
Her strength lies in translating complexity into clarity, energizing teams, and shaping brand narratives that connect. Whether she’s designing a visual identity, leading a deep-dive strategy session, or helping organizations activate their culture, Marianne brings empathy, playfulness, and sharp strategic thinking to every collaboration.
In Partnership With
Miro
Miro is an online workspace for innovation that is visually reminiscent to whiteboards we have in meeting rooms. All the tools are located on the left side of the screen. And it allows you to add various content from texts to images, create maps and diagrams, and work with visual templates together with a team.
Ladies that UX
Ladies that UX Amsterdam is a welcoming and inclusive community that aims to promote female talent and increase female visibility. Our community is inclusive to all background, gender, age, race, and expertise.
What People are Saying
"The community’s warmth and generosity in tending to me and the issue made me feel cared for and supported. Beyond the suggestions, which were immediately useful, the culture of the community makes leaning into that growth edge easier, and more delightful."
Katrina Mitchell
Senior Technical Advisor, JHPiego
“I just wanted to say thanks for the great session last night. Your feedback and suggestions were fantastic. I left very energized!"
Dan Corbin
Instructor at Pragmatic Institute
Photo Disclaimer
Please note that photographs, video & audio recordings will be taken throughout this event. These will be used by Voltage Control for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and in social media, or in any third party publication. Please contact our events manager if you have any concerns or if you wish to be exempted from this activity.
