This was not a software workshop or an AI talk. It was a hands-on session for the Southwest Area Chamber's Business Builders group, and I was one of four networking coaches helping people practice the parts of professional conversation that are easy to describe and harder to do.
Make the workshop match the skill
The session focused on introducing yourself, starting a conversation, asking good questions, listening well, and following up. Those are active skills. A slide deck can name them, but it cannot give someone the experience of trying an introduction, seeing how it lands, adjusting, and trying again.
So the room became the exercise. Participants practiced with one another while the coaches observed, encouraged, and helped keep the work moving.
Share the facilitation
I coached alongside Deborah Rhodes, Megan Peters, and Paul Roam. Having several coaches made the session less dependent on one voice and gave participants more than one style of communication to learn from.
It also made the room easier to support. People could get feedback without turning every exercise into a public performance in front of the entire group.
Why this belongs in my DevRel archive
Developer education often has the same failure mode: we explain a process clearly, but never create the conditions for someone to try it. The audience understands the idea and still leaves without the confidence that comes from completing the first attempt.
Skills Gym was not technical content, but the teaching decision transfers directly. Build the session around the action you want people to take. Keep the environment safe enough for questions and imperfect attempts. Coach the work while it is happening.
What I took from it
- Design the format around practice when practice is the actual need.
- Use multiple facilitators when participants benefit from individual attention and different perspectives.
- Make early attempts feel low-risk so people will participate instead of watching from the edge of the room.
- Judge the workshop by what people were able to do, not by how much material the coaches presented.
Primary sources
- Southwest Area Chamber event listing
- My Skills Gym announcement on LinkedIn
- My post-workshop recap
- Southwest Area Chamber recap naming the four coaches