Facilitation Lab
Facilitation Lab Chicago
Practice Playground
With Olga Frias-Basta and Ariel Goldfarb
June 18, 2025
5:30pm - 7:30pm CDT
Thanks to our friends at Highland Digital for hosting us!
The goal of Facilitation Lab Chicago is to foster a vibrant community where facilitators can connect, explore, and share experiences—all about facilitation. Facilitation Lab Chicagoland brings together facilitators from diverse backgrounds and levels of experience. This space is dedicated to nurturing meaningful exchanges and fostering deep connections among community members and new visitors alike. Whether you are a seasoned expert or just beginning your facilitation journey, Facilitation Lab Chicago offers an inclusive environment to engage with peers, exchange ideas, and build professional networks.
The goal of Facilitation Lab Chicago is to foster a vibrant community where facilitators can connect, explore, and share experiences—all about facilitation. Facilitation Lab Chicagoland brings together facilitators from diverse backgrounds and levels of experience. This space is dedicated to nurturing meaningful exchanges and fostering deep connections among community members and new visitors alike. Whether you are a seasoned expert or just beginning your facilitation journey, Facilitation Lab Chicago offers an inclusive environment to engage with peers, exchange ideas, and build professional networks.
June 18, 2025
5:30pm - 7:30pm CDT
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About Facilitation Lab Chicago
Facilitation Lab Chicago is a monthly in-person meetup for changemakers, collaborative leaders, and facilitators across chicago. 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, Olga and Ariel cultivate a space for experimentation and collaborative leadership development, with a focus on people-powered organizational change.
Facilitation Lab Chicago 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
Leaders
Anyone in a leadership role who needs to manage people to a useful outcome
Product & Project Managers
Who want to steer stakeholders to the best outcomes and learn best practices in stakeholder management
Teachers & Trainers
Who want to design the most impactful learning and create engaging learning experiences
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
Olga Frias-Basta
Full time Scrum Master/Facilitator at Trane Technologies where she leads two teams within their Digital Organization through all of their Agile practices, coaching best practices along the way and finding better ways to communicate complicated scenarios across development teams. I love the opportunity to practice new techniques, like Liberating Structures and Improv, that have been made possible through Voltage Controls Facilitation Labs. My goal is to bring those opportunities to practice and explore new techniques in person through a live community of practice.
With over 25 years of software development experience, and aware of how easily unintentional silos can inhibit delivering value quickly, I relish the opportunity to explore and experiment with different techniques for communicating ideas, information, and ensuring every voice gets heard.
When not donning my Super Scrum Master cape I enjoy riding long distances on my bicycle (I don’t go fast but I go pretty far), playing my mountain dulcimer (and pretending to sing), and playing complex board games (still trying to master Wingspan, figuring out Alhambra, and hooked on Crew and all iterations of Azul).
With over 25 years of software development experience, and aware of how easily unintentional silos can inhibit delivering value quickly, I relish the opportunity to explore and experiment with different techniques for communicating ideas, information, and ensuring every voice gets heard.
When not donning my Super Scrum Master cape I enjoy riding long distances on my bicycle (I don’t go fast but I go pretty far), playing my mountain dulcimer (and pretending to sing), and playing complex board games (still trying to master Wingspan, figuring out Alhambra, and hooked on Crew and all iterations of Azul).
Ariel Goldfarb
Ariel is managing partner of Concentric Growth Partners, which develops collaborative innovation and intelligence programs for corporate and institutional clients. He has 20 years of experience in research, marketing and strategy, both in the U.S. and overseas.
Ariel guest lectures on the role of customers and brand on innovation at the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering. Previously, he was on the faculty of Northwestern University’s Medill School for 12 years, where he taught Brand Equity Management in Chicago, San Francisco and London. He is a recipient of the 2010 Faculty Teaching Award, holds a Bachelors degree from U.C. Berkeley, and a Masters degree in Integrated Marketing and Communications from Northwestern University.
Ariel lives in Evanston. His afflictions are slow cycling, espresso in all its forms, and baking pizza and sourdough. His interest in facilitation and joining VC Facilitation Lab is to explore and unlock the power of collaboration to do things better and do better things.
Ariel guest lectures on the role of customers and brand on innovation at the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering. Previously, he was on the faculty of Northwestern University’s Medill School for 12 years, where he taught Brand Equity Management in Chicago, San Francisco and London. He is a recipient of the 2010 Faculty Teaching Award, holds a Bachelors degree from U.C. Berkeley, and a Masters degree in Integrated Marketing and Communications from Northwestern University.
Ariel lives in Evanston. His afflictions are slow cycling, espresso in all its forms, and baking pizza and sourdough. His interest in facilitation and joining VC Facilitation Lab is to explore and unlock the power of collaboration to do things better and do better things.
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.
