Choose one of your workshop ideas from the previous exercise and decide who it could be for by thinking of the perfect person you’d like to attend your workshop. Draw a gingerbread person outline on a piece of paper, and write the answers to the following questions inside the outline of the gingerbread person to help describe them.

• What age are they?
• Where do they live?
• Are they employed, unemployed, at school or retired?
• Will they know other people in the workshop or are the group meeting for the first time?
• Are they part of an existing group, for example an arts club or sports group?
• Do they have an existing interest in the topic of your workshop or will they be trying something new?
• Do they have any access needs, for example will they need to know the structure of the workshop in advance or do they need written resources in large print?

Add any extra details about the people attending the workshop that might be useful during the planning process.

Now use a different colour or write on the outside of the outline, looking back at the different facts you’ve decided about your perfect workshop participant. See if there are any clues or considerations about which activities you’ll want to include. For example, if your workshop was for a sports group at a secondary school you might make a note to include some sport-inspired activities to keep the workshop quite active.

If you were working with a retired group of people you would want to make sure that all activities can be completed either seated or standing, to enable people with different physicalities to fully take part.

Add any other details about your perfect participant and any other thoughts you have that would enable that person to really thrive in the workshop.