NeX AFRICA is a consultation and training company run by workshop veteran Mandiaye Ndao in Senegal. Mandiaye delivers many of his workships himself, all for the likes of the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU). Every day is different for Mandiate; he could be off to the Ivory Coast to run a training session for Expertise France (AFD), at home leading a workshop for the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), or on the streets of Dakar chatting with me about his work.
His events, however, are pretty much uniform. Mandiaye always makes sure the two core values of NeX AFRICA are ever-present in what he does…
- Democracy; the opportunity for everyone to have an input.
- Nexus; a connection point, a small hint to the unique, interactive training and facilitation sessions that Mandiaye runs.
The challenges
Finding a solution to NeX AFRICA’s two core values was Mandiaye’s biggest challenge. How can you run a democratic and connective workshop, in which everyone contributes and interacts, and keep it highly engaging for such a diverse audience?Before he started his hunt, Mandiaye found that collecting opinions and ideas from his workshop attendees (sometimes up to 150 people) was virtually impossible. Questions would be asked, a few hands would go up and only a small handful of ideas would come out.He needed a way for everyone to participate and feel connected to each other power of his training.
- To gather a range of opinions from small and large groups.
- To energise his workshops and satisfy his clients and participants.
- To find a solution accessible to everyone, young and old.
The results
After trialling Mentimeter as a potential solution in 2020, soon after, Mandiaye came across AhaSlides.
He uploaded his PowerPoint presentations to the platform, inserted a few interactive slides here and there, then began conducting all of his workshops as engaging, two-way conversations between himself and his audience.
But how did his audience react? Well, Mandiaye asks two questions in each presentation: what do you expect from this session? and did we meet those expectations?
“80% of the room is super duper satisfied and in the open-ended slide they write that the user experience was amazing“.
- Participants are attentive and engaged. Mandiatye receives hundreds of 'like' and 'heart' reactions on his presentations.
- All participants can submit ideas and opinions, regardless of group size.
- Other trainers come up to Mandiaye after his workshops to ask about his interactive style and tool.
