In partnership with reShift and Design Thinker Group US, Design Sojourn co-facilitated the Asia Great Timber Analysis Workshop (AGTA) in Singapore and Thailand. This workshop series was commissioned by the USAID and DAI.
The goal of the AGTA workshop was to validate the Asia Grey Timber Report’s preliminary research findings. The sponsor wanted to also collect feedback from the ground and co-create solutions to combat illegal timber trade within the region (which is on the rise!).
The co-creation workshops were held in two locations – Singapore and Bangkok, Thailand. The full-day workshop invited key “actors” from supply chain, traders, retailers, associations, watchdogs, and non-profit groups, to collaborate with the research team to gain insights and clarity on their findings. Both workshops had similar agendas, and Design Thinking tools used were the Discussion Canvas, Storyboards and Collaboration Cards.
Workshop in Singapore
Participants from diverse backgrounds came together to share and collaborate ideas on how to combat the illegal timber trade.
The workshop started off with an ice-breaker and quick self-introduction, during which they were asked to share why reducing illegal timber is important to them.
After the Research Team shared their findings, participants provided their feedback in a Q&A “open mic” session. This led to prioritising a series of discussion topics that set the tone for the collaboration rounds.
After lunch, the participants discussed and explored the topics over two rounds. In order to develop actionable steps to reduce illegal timber, they identified the desired outcomes, stakeholders (who are involved), transitions (what changes would need to happen), and barriers. They then identified opportunities and brainstormed ideas for each topic. By the end of both rounds, they selected the best idea or group of ideas to bring into the prototyping step. Each team developed a Storyboard prototype to refine and share their ideas back to everyone for their final input.
Workshop in Bangkok, Thailand
Participant shares the output of the prototyping through a storyboarding tool.
At the end of both workshops, participants completed a Collaboration Card which collected their contact information, who they would like to collaborate with, and their plans on how to continue this journey after the workshop.
