kelvinaa

Dear Lora (since you asked the initial question) and everyone else,

First of all, i have a funny feeling that this has been / is being discussed somewhere else, but i'm not sure where exactly.

And since Sifaan already cleared up something very important, viz. identifying what is the session aiming at, a few things i can think of to make your session more productive:

1. The idea of having the session 'outside' is good, i.e. if by that you mean outside the usual environment of the participants. That means no house, office, seminar hall or the like. If you have enough Outgoing prospects, then organizing a small (2-3 day, maybe weekend) local conference would be a good idea. And in case you dont have many, you could use it to orient your newer members too. But this is dependent on timing, e.g. right after recruitment, or after/before a national conference. Involve trainees too, if possible. I'm sure they'd love the break ... Oh, one word of caution though, don't call it a 'conference' or something like it, that's a bit boring and makes it sound tooo formal. Think up a nice name which makes it sound a little interesting, along with being official and fun !!...

2. Of course, then comes the part about the sessions themselves. The three topics you mentioned you want to cover usually involve the three step "Provide information - Participants Discuss - Feedback" route, its upto you how you want to innovate. e.g., in the first step, instead of the usual 'lecture' format, a 'small' role play followed by a 'brief' introduction of the topic works out much better. For step two, dividing into groups works great... i.e. if carried out with a bit of panache.
In case of diverse topics, make the groups discuss different aspects, thereby increasing productivity.
Keep the groups balanced. Dont put 'more active' individuals with the 'less active' one's. You're only going to end up making the 'less active' one's become even more so. Including an AIESECer (preferably senior) to sort-of pseudo-facilitate the group works nice. Actually, if you have prior knowledge of the participants' personality traits, you could actually make groups prior to the session, probably in discussion with senior or Executive Body members. Then you can actually rig the grouping and make it look like it was random. I know, its a bit of an effort and can get little complicated, but if the results are what you wanted,why not?

3. Make efficient use of the time while the participants discuss. You could go around to different groups and clarify any doubts, but also keep an eye out of any points being discussed which you would like to mention during your closing. Dont wait for it till they present their ideas to all the participants. In case of a lot of groups, divide your workload and keep a few assistant-facilitators for doing this.

4. And finally, stay lively and energetic. Though i wouldn't ask you to make use of a 'baton', but a little 'zing' never hurts, in fact, if accompanied by a deep understanding of the topics and ample attention to individual participants as well as the whole group, it actually makes the participants more attentive to what you're saying. Well, in case you end up doing something very weird, they might call you that - 'weird', but at least they'll remember you, and the content better. Remember those 'stupid' advertisements which you thought were totally pointless, insane and extremely weird?? Well, you do remember them though, dont you??