What’s a Share Fair ? And How Can I Have One?

Top 10 Share Fair ‘Rules’ to Make Learning Before, During, and After the Best It Can Be

Remember Picasso’s great quote that “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he [she] grows up.” We were once all good info sharers… then we grew up. I thought about that last week when the Global Health Knowledge Collaborative (GHKC) held one of its lunchtime webinars about Share Fairs. Adults are compelled to cast everything through prescribed structures, including how to share knowledge and information.

That’s not such a bad idea. You might think you inherently understand how to share what you know and get others to do the same. However, there are some tried and true lessons that can help direct that proffer. These informal ‘rules’ are grounded in andragogy (adult learning) principles and take into account many of the things that generally stifle generous knowledge exchange. I believe that, just like art, once you know the ‘rules’ about share fairing, you’ll know which ones you can break to move your respective field forward. The key is to maintain the same childlike enthusiasm and eagerness to tell all while respecting the work-related confines that adults must adhere to. So, in that vein, here’s a synopsis of my top 10 Share Fair ‘rules.’ How you decide to use them to help strengthen health systems is up to you!

1. Share Fairs should have a specific audience and cover specific topics, with a dedicated facilitator (akin to the host of a party who should try to make sure that everyone gets what they need and that activities run smoothly).
    
2. Share Fairs should provide the time and space for people to share practical skills and learn from each other. Note that time for networking is essential and if it’s not built into the schedule (including frequent breaks), participants will start ducking out to do it anyway.
    
3. Share Fairs should use innovative and creative ways (i.e., visual storytelling, buzz sessions, graphic facilitation, knowledge cafes, mobile polls, etc.) to share key information, with content that includes both successes and failures.
    
4. Share Fair objectives should be set early and include activities on the agenda that reinforce these objectives throughout the event. Break down the objectives into ‘bite-sized’ pieces for better understanding and greater flexibility.
    
5. Share Fair agendas should be structured (intentional goals, timeframes, and topics) but with a high degree of informality, which allows participants to openly share their perspectives and personal experiences and a comfort level to question the status quo.
    
6. Share Fairs should provide information and knowledge through dialogue; talking ‘with,’ not ‘at’ participants, and offer a bridge for participants to talk with each other.
    
7. Share Fairs should ideally include pre- and post-evaluations: a pre-evaluation sent to participants allows organizers to learn what the participants expect to get out of the event and to have a proper baseline to gauge where to start with the participants’ learning curve, and a post-evaluation to see if the participants got what they expected out of the event and whether the event organizers met their own goals. The evaluations should be used to inform next steps or future programming.
    
8. Share Fair facilitators should keep everyone to time; presenters and participants should respect each other’s’ timetables.
    
9. Have designated note takers and a standardized note-taking sheet to capture key points and provide a record of the knowledge exchange for future reference, which can become part of the events codified knowledge and contribute to any required final report.
    
10. Ideally, a Share Fair is the beginning of an ongoing exchange, so plan for future engagement and conversation or correspondence with participants by setting up an opportunity to continue the dialogue and learning (Facebook page or other social media platforms, blogging, email group list, Community of Practice, etc.)

Beyond these ten rules, you should always practice the golden KM rule of carrying out an After Action Review for any significant activity of this kind.

If you didn’t catch the live What’s a Share Fair? And How Can I Have One? webinar, you can check out the recorded version here: https://www.globalhealthknowledge.org/content/webinar-recordings. And stay tuned for K4Health’s upcoming guide on How to Hold a Successful Share Fair, due out in the coming weeks. In the meantime, try to tap into your inner child and remember what made learning fun… a mix of activities with an encouraging group and lots of breaks! All of which is part of the art and science of knowledge exchange and learning.

[1] “A knowledge share fair is a buzzing, interactive and collaborative workspace, with lively discussions and practical demonstrations. There are facilitated sessions to learn how others have improved the effectiveness and quality of their work, and opportunities for networking, allowing people to connect and link ideas as well as exchanging opinions in a natural way and relaxed setting. A share fair is not a goal in itself, but the beginning of a process. It will create new partnerships; new exchanges between people that would like to work together, in a different way. Events such as a share fair, that include the application of knowledge sharing tools and methods, encourage interaction and thus need careful planning. Even though a fair aims at spontaneous and informal exchange of ideas, improvisation should reside in the flow of thoughts and content, not in the approach.” (Good Practice Fact Sheet, March 2014: How to Organize a Knowledge Fair Share, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy, 2014)