[DGFG] [Freelance / Contract, On Site, Thailand, Bulgaria, France] Workshop Facilitator
Gabriel White
🪪 Workshop Facilitator (Small Surfaces)
📍 Thailand, Bulgaria, France, Bangkok, Sofia, Paris (On Site)
🕣 Freelance / Contract
💵 Depends on experience and location
About the project
Small Surfaces is a human-centred design consultancy working on a multi-city international programme focused on urban air quality. The programme works with city governments, civil society organisations, and residents across cities globally to improve how air quality data is understood, communicated, and acted on.
As part of our research phase, we are running structured consultation workshops across all participating cities. These sessions gather the insight that drives our design decisions and build local ownership of the work from the start. The workshops are designed to work both online and face-to-face, and the same core structure runs across all cities to allow meaningful comparison.
The role
- We are looking for three experienced workshop facilitators to run one of these sessions in either:
- Bangkok (in Thai)
- Sofia (in Bulgarian)
- Paris (in French - we could consider remote)
- You will be working from a detailed workshop protocol. We will brief you fully on the methodology, materials, and tools before the session.
What you'll do
- Join a briefing session with our team to learn the workshop structure, facilitation approach, and digital tools
- Review and prepare the localised workshop materials, including translated slides and voting tool setup
- Coordinate with a local contact who will open the session in their own words
- Facilitate a 3-hour structured workshop with approximately 25 participants — typically a mix of city officials and representatives from community and civil society organisations including local advocacy groups, environmental NGOs, and community associations
- Hold space for open discussion at key moments — particularly when participant opinions diverge, which is often where the most useful insight emerges
- Hand over session recordings, polling exports, and facilitator notes after the session
- Join a post-workshop debrief with our team to share observations, flag anything the recordings won't capture, and discuss what worked or didn't
What we're looking for
- Proven experience facilitating structured workshops with mixed groups of senior stakeholders — city or government officials alongside civil society and community representatives
- Familiarity with HCD, participatory research, social research, or community engagement methods — you understand that the goal is to surface genuine needs and perspectives, not to steer participants toward a particular answer
- Strong group management and active listening skills — particularly the ability to hold space when participants disagree without resolving the tension prematurely
- Comfort with digital facilitation tools: polling software and shared presentation tools
- Native or near-native fluency in Thai, Bulgarian or French (as appropriate)
- Living in or near Bangkok, Bulgaria or Paris (as appropriate)
Nice to have
- Experience working in air quality, urban sustainability, public health, or environmental sectors
- Experience working with city government or civil society
Contracting & timeline
- This is a fixed price contract
- We expect the workshops to be carried out in May or June
How to apply
Please send an email to gab...@smallsurfaces.com describing how your experience is relevant for this role along with a CV and LinkedIn profile.
🚀 Contact gab...@smallsurfaces.com to apply
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👋 Shared by Gabriel White (gab...@smallsurfaces.com)