NPHM Workshop #2
This NPHM workshop was designed to learn what is most important to Section 3 entrepreneurs. The goals of the workshop were to hear stories from business owners and learn about their priorities—spatial, programmatic, and otherwise—for a new business accelerator. The workshop was organized in collaboration with Archeworks to incorporate participatory activities that addressed different aspects of fledgling NPHM projects.
Nine Square Grid
Participants chose a white card—in this case, “business accelerator”—and then selected black cards to identify their priorities in relation to the white card. Higher-priority black cards were moved to the squares adjacent to the white card. From this exercise, we learned that programming, training, and community engagement are at least as important as physical and spatial qualities of a business accelerator.
Post-It Questions
Anonymous questions in written form can draw out important stories that a workshop participant might not otherwise share. For this activity, we wanted to learn which questions were best for gathering stories. We found that an open-ended question tied to emotion, such as “When do you feel most at home?,” drew the most interesting and diverse narrative responses.
Conversation Bench
This activity was designed by an Archeworks team to create a platform for intentional conversation. Two participants sat face-to-face and answered questions (drawn out of a hat) such as, “What do you want the legacy of your business to be?”
Icon Voting
In this simple exercise, we asked participants to identify their favorite and least favorite icon. The goal was to identify which symbols evoked positive or negative associations. The symbols may be used in the future as a small physical token that invites people to visit NPHM.
