If you are organizing a meeting or workshop, ARTEMIS Services can help you make sure that it:
achieves its objectives
ensures genuine participation
enhances learning, understanding, and communication
builds partnerships
paves the way to clear and specific follow-up actions, and
fosters commitment to a common vision, and to common goals, objectives and targets.
The key to a successful meeting is to ensure that the participants feel that their voices have been heard, and that they have ownership of the results.
Particularly in challenging situations, the likelihood of success can be enhanced by the services of an independent and skilled facilitator.
FACILITATION SERVICES
Meg Gawler has facilitated over fifty workshops and meetings worldwide (list attached), in English and/or French, and with a wide variety of stakeholders and objectives, in:
grassroots planning
brainstorming
project design
programme development
developing a vision
strategic planning and target setting
participatory project monitoring
participatory evaluations
developing and testing monitoring and evaluation tools
eliciting participants’ experiences, and drawing lessons learned
organizing and facilitating a bilingual workshop of a large international conference
formal regional consultations
helping groups with a history of conflict to agree on joint objectives and actions.
Meg is trained in:
project and programme design
logical framework analysis
strategic planning
public speaking
workshop moderation using goal-oriented planning, and
Metaplan facilitation techniques.
In addition, Meg also provides training courses in: project design and project cycle management; strategic planning; participatory evaluation; and self management / time management. These skills often come in useful in facilitating meetings and workshops.
One of the keys to success is carefully planning the workshop in close partnership with the client, to ensure that the workshop objectives and outputs are clear and realistic. It is on this basis that the methodology is developed. In all workshops, the emphasis is on ensuring absolute transparency.
A natural focus is to help the teams develop vision and strategic thinking, and to make sure that this is linked with the realities of the field and of the implementers.
Meg has good interpersonal abilities and has worked in a tremendous variety of cultural contexts, including in 60 countries worldwide. These skills are essential to moderating productive workshops where all participants can contribute fully.
Most workshops involve elements of capacity building, helping participants to understand the strategic planning and/or the workshop process, so they can contribute more effectively and have take-home skills to use in other contexts.
COMMENTS FROM CLIENTS
Meg Gawler walks on water as a facilitator, and can “herd cats” (i.e., knows what is needed to reach consensus). What more can we ask?
- Richard Carroll, Director, Central & West Africa Program, WWF US
Excellent facilitation ... Meg is keen to understand the issues in their true context, and to plan and apply the right method of work adapted to the circumstances. Through her facilitation, Meg aims at concrete results for the benefit of people we serve. She is a great team player, and is able to influence a varied group of experts to actively participate in the debates and to reach conclusions. She has a way of making complex tasks simple and enjoyable, even if they are in fact difficult. Our programme benefited a lot from her professionalism in designing its programme strategy.
– Francis Parakatil, Coordinator, West/Central Asia and North Africa Programme, IUCN
Meg Gawler performs as a true facilitator, strictly neutral, never going beyond her remit, and thus giving participants full confidence that their views are important and count. At the same time patient, polite and calm even in stress and conflict situations. As she combines such human skills with professional preparation, organisation, and evaluation – hire Meg, and your meeting will be a success!
– Stephan Lutter, Director, WWF North-East Atlantic Programme
Considerably exceeded my expectations … excellent job. Your clear thinking and laser-like determination to achieve the aims of the meeting are two reasons why I will be pleased to work with you on such projects in the future.
– Simon Cripps, Director, WWF Endangered Seas Programme
We appreciated your professionalism in all the tasks involved, your careful planning, efficient management of discussions, timing and schedules, your report-writing skills, and your thoroughness in managing information and ideas.
– Gonzalo Oviedo, Head, People and Conservation, WWF International
The services were very professional: business-like, efficient, conscientious, well tailored to our needs before, during and after the meeting. Many participants commented after the meeting that it had been constructive, productive, and enjoyable.
– Cassandra Phillips, Senior Policy Adviser, Whales and Antarctica, WWF International
Thanks to very good facilitation, the workshop had an amicable atmosphere throughout, and the participants remained focused, energetic and efficient. I was really impressed with Meg's meticulousness in all the details of the workshop preparation; the report was also very comprehensively documented and orderly.
– Ugen Norbu, Programme Officer, Species Programme, WWF International
We appreciated your professionalism as well as your scientific background. You succeeded in a short time in acquiring a good understanding of our activities. You seemed to us to be extremely well organized, which contributed to the success of this work. We appreciated your rigour, especially in the strategic planning and in meeting deadlines.
– Jean-Paul Taris, Director General, Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat, France
Meg clearly has good experience and skills in helping to plan, organize, and facilitate workshops. Very clear and precise direction ensured that we had an effective agenda and achieved our objectives, so that we got the best out of the meeting with limited time – which does not happen very often. Meg’s professional way of being firm, but also helping with ideas and ways to move the discussions forward was very good. I liked the interaction, and the way we learned, improved, and reviewed as we went along. I liked that this was a partnership, in which all of us were involved. I also liked that Meg provided ideas to teams who were stuck, and support and praise for good progress and results. The output was great.
– Isabelle Louis, Director, Asia/Pacific Programme, WWF International
I was thrilled with Ms. Gawler’s performance as a facilitator. She did an admirable job guiding a group of 22 conservation professionals through a complex process to determine their group’s future structure and function. Ms. Gawler was well-organized, exhibited excellent patience, and kept the group on-task, and on-time. In short, she was pleasant, competent and professional and I wouldn’t hesitate to use her services again.
– Steven Monfort, Conservation & Research Center, Smithsonian Institution and Chair, Sahelo-Sarahan Interest Group
| Meg Gawler – EXPERIENCE IN WORKSHOP FACILITATION, 1993 – 2007 |
| When | What | Where | Lang | Output |
| 10 / 93 | Grassroots planning with village communities | Villages near Marojejy Reserves, Madagascar | Fr/ trans | Input into logical framework planning workshop |
| 10 / 93 | Planning workshop for an integrated conservation and development project using ZOPP (goal-oriented project planning) technique (co-facilitator) | Marojejy Reserves Complex, Madagascar | Fr | Project logical framework, and ultimately funding from the German Bank, KfW |
| 12 / 94 | Evaluation workshop for the Bazaruto Archipelago Conservation project | Bazaruto Island, Mozambique | Eng | Joint evaluation with project team and government partners on the strengths and weaknesses of the project, in preparation for its next phase |
| 07 / 95 | Technical review workshop, Bazaruto Multiple Resource Use project | Bazaruto Island, Mozambique | Eng | Project monitoring matrix. Agreement with new project team and government partners on the status of the new project and adaptive management steps to be taken |
| 11 / 95 | Planning workshop for WWF’s West Africa Programme | Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire | Fr | Elements for strategic plan |
| 12 / 95 | Planning workshop for WWF Endangered Seas Campaign | Godalming, U.K. | Eng | Campaign strategy |
| 02 / 96 | 2nd technical review workshop, Bazaruto Multiple Resource Use project | Bazaruto Island, Mozambique | Eng | Project monitoring matrix. Agreement with project team and government partners on the status of the project in relation to its objectives and adaptive management steps to be taken |
| 11 / 96 | Workshop to track implementation of WWF’s Strategic Plan for Central and West Africa | Bayanga, Central African Republic | Eng | Programme monitoring matrix, which later became a model for WWF’s Programme worldwide |
| 01 / 97 | Strategic planning workshop for the freshwater component of WWF’s global / transregional strategy | Gland, Switzerland | Eng | Elements for strategic plan |
| 03 / 97 | Strategic planning for WWF’s priorities for freshwater conservation in the Africa / Madagascar Region | Gona-re-Zhou, Zimbabwe | Eng | Integration of top-down and bottom-up approaches. Strategy developed with buy-in from programme implementers |
| 07 / 97 | 3rd technical review workshop, Bazaruto Multiple Resource Use project | Bazaruto Island, Mozambique | Eng | Project monitoring matrix; logical framework and budget |
| 03 / 98 | Working group on links between conservation and development, for workshop on Experiences in Local and Community Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the Western Indian Ocean | Zanzibar, Tanzania | Eng | Input into integrated coastal zone management policy in Eastern Africa and Island States under the Nairobi Convention |
| 04 / 98 | Working group with WWF Programme Office Representatives | Ibadan, Nigeria | Eng | Guidance on how to conduct programme reviews |
| 04 / 98 | Working group with WWF Programme Office Representatives and Director of Africa Programme | Ibadan, Nigeria | Eng | Review and refinement of the programme monitoring matrix, which later became a model for WWF worldwide |
| 06 / 98 | Working group on programme monitoring for WWF seminar on measuring conservation achievement | Gland, Switzerland | Eng | Development of WWF policy on monitoring and evaluation |
| 06 / 98 | Working group on setting global conservation targets for WWF seminar on measuring conservation achievement | Gland, Switzerland | Eng | Genesis of WWF’s emphasis on Target Driven Programmes |
| 07 / 98 | Working group on ecoregion conservation for WWF Marine Advisory Group | Nha Trang, Vietnam | Eng | Marine Advisory Group recommendations to WWF Programme Committee |
| 08 / 98 | Workshop on marine ecoregion planning for WWF Conservation Science Program (co-facilitator) | Cape Town, South Africa | Eng | Preliminary map and descriptions of marine ecoregions in the Africa / Madagascar region, based on expert knowledge |
| 11 / 98 | Workshop on Strategies for Wise Use of Wetlands: Best Practices in Participatory Management at the 2nd International Conference on Wetlands and Development – (over 100 participants) | Dakar, Senegal | Fr+ Eng | Input into Guidelines for establishing and strengthening local communities’ and indigenous people’s participation in the management of wetlands, adopted the CoP7 of the Ramsar Convention; proceedings on Best Practices in Participatory Management |
| 04 / 99 | Auto-evaluation workshop, WWF Madagascar Programme | Antananarivo, Madagascar | Fr | Input into programme evaluation by external reviewers; capacity building for Malagasy staff in critical analysis and self-evaluation |
| 04 / 99 | Participatory restitution workshop, evaluation of WWF Madagascar Programme | Antananarivo, Madagascar | Fr | Sharing and joint learning with respect to evaluation findings and recommendations; evaluation report; input into strategic planning for the next phase of the programme |
| 06 / 99 | Meeting for selection of Prince Bernhard Scholars, WWF International | Gland, Switzerland | Eng | Adoption of criteria for selection process; selection of scholarship awards; recommendations for future development of the programme |
| 07 / 99 | Strategic planning workshop for WWF Programme for Madagascar and the Western Indian Ocean | Ambohima-nambola, Madagascar | Fr | Elements for strategic plan; capacity building in strategic planning |
| 09 / 99 | Strategic planning workshop for IUCN West and Central Asia and North Africa Programme | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Eng (+Fr) | Elements for strategic plan; capacity building in strategic planning |
| 11 / 99 | Workshop on Marine Protected Areas in the North-East Atlantic | Brest, France | Eng (+Fr) | Framework for marine protected areas in the North-East Atlantic; input into OSPAR Convention process |
| 04 / 00 | CoralWeb design workshop: development of a global programme to save coral reefs in priority ecoregions worldwide | Suva, Fiji | Eng | CoralWeb: Coral reef ecoregions in action framework document |
| 09 / 00 | WWF strategic planning workshop for tiger conservation | Anyer, Java, Indonesia | Eng | Selection of priority landscapes for tiger conservation throughout Asia; elements for strategic plan |
| 10 / 00 | WWF strategic planning workshop for conservation of great whales worldwide | Rolle, Switzerland | Eng | Agreement on WWF priorities for great whale conservation; elements for strategic plan; conservation targets |
| 11 / 00 | Consultation meeting for the World Bank Environment Strategy for the Middle East and North Africa (over 80 participants representing partner organizations from 14 countries in the region) | Amman, Jordan | Eng +Fr | Feedback on, and recommendations for, the World Bank’s Environment Strategy for the Middle East and North Africa |
| 01 / 01 | Strategic planning workshop for WWF Freshwater Target Driven Programme | Rolle, Switzerland | Eng | Strategic framework and design principles for WWF’s new programme for the freshwater biome |
| 04-05 / 01 | Strategic planning for the Tour du Valat Biological Station – 10 workshops over 2 months for: the Directors; the various research teams (lagoons, temporary ponds, conservation, the domain, reedbeds, agri-environment, long-term studies); synthesis with all groups; wrap-up with Directors | Tour du Valat, Le Sambuc, France | Fr | Elements for integrated strategic plan for the research station as a whole and for individual research groups; monitoring matrix for the programme; capacity-building in strategic planning |
| 05 / 01 | World Bank - WWF Alliance management meeting, WWF Forests for Life programme | Gland, Switzerland | Eng | Improved communications between the two teams; action plan for helping the Alliance move more effectively towards its targets; identification of baseline elements for the success of the Alliance |
| 06 / 01 | Strategic planning workshop for WWF Asian Rhinoceros and Elephant Action Strategy | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | Eng | Elements for strategic plan, focusing on landscape-level targets and indicators |
| 10 / 01 | Communications strategy workshop for the WWF Endangered Seas Campaign | Gland, Switzerland | Eng | Elements for a communications strategy |
| 02 / 02 | Expert consultation on fish biosafety in Africa for ICLARM – the World Fish Center | Nairobi, Kenya | Eng | Contributions to guidelines for introductions and disseminations of improved strains of fish in Africa |
| 05 / 02 | Organizational planning for the Sahelo-Saharan Interest Group | Smolenice, Slovakia | Eng | Consensus on the group’s future function and structure |
| 07 / 02 | Strategic Planning for the Madagascar Program of the Missouri Botanical Garden | Steeleville, Missouri, USA | Eng +Fr | Agreement on the vision, core values, and long-term goal of the programme; analysis of current problems, challenges, and ways forward. |
| 11 / 02 | WWF Freshwater and Cotton Initiative Strategy Workshop | Zürich, Switzerland | Eng | Decision on which geographic regions should be the focus of the initiative, and identification of better management practices, and levers for putting these better management practices in place in the focal regions. |
| 01 / 03 | Strategic planning integrating management, finance, administration, human resources and communications | Tour du Valat, Le Sambuc, France | Fr | Elements to complete an integrated strategic plan for the research station as a whole. |
| 01 / 03 | WWF Programme Office and Donors Round Table and Operations Review | Gland, Switzerland | Eng | Recommendations for improving collaboration between WWF Programme Offices and donor National Organizations |
| 06 / 04 | Brainstorming of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands | Rolle, Switzerland | Eng | Ideas for taking forward the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands |
| 01 / 05 | Vision workshop for PAN Parks and WWF | Gland, Switzerland | Eng | Agreed long-term vision for the future of PAN Parks and action plan for next steps |
| 04 / 05 | Towards a Consolidated Global Monitoring / Reporting System | Lausanne, Switzerland | Eng | Explored and agreed on elements of a monitoring and reporting database for all of WWF’s conservation work worldwide |
| 07/05 | IUCN Conservation Policy Strategy | Gland, Switzerland | Eng | Agreement on priorities for IUCN’s policy work and development of a framework for a global strategy |
| 07/05 | WWF Standards for Conservation Project and Programme Management | Lausanne, Switzerland | Eng | Assessment of and recommendations for tools and guidelines needed for the implementation of the WWF Standards |
| 09/05 | Proposal writing workshop, WWF International | Gland, Switzerland | Eng | Elements of a proposal to the EC to support selected Parties to the CBD to implement the Convention’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas |
| 2006 | Co-facilitated ten workshops to develop a major programme to implement the Programme of Work on Protected Areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity | Tblisi, Georgia; Dombay, Russia; Yerevan, Armenia; Baku, Azerbaijan; Krasnoyarsk, Russia; Belgrade, Serbia; Petronell, Austria; Dakar, Senegal; Ankara, Turkey; Zürich, Switzerland | Eng | Essential elements of a successful 10 million Swiss franc proposal by WWF International to the MAVA Foundation |
| 06/07 | Strengthening the Capacity of Governments to Implement Priority Activities of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas in Eastern Europe | Vilm, Germany | Eng | Plans for moving forward to implement the CBD PoWPA in 13 countries in Eastern Europe |
| 08/07 | Strengthening the Capacity of Governments to Implement Priority Activities of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas in Central Asia and the Caucasus | Vilm, Germany | Eng | Plans for moving forward to implement the CBD PoWPA in 13 countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus |
