A workshop needs a full or half day from every participant, which makes it a harder scheduling problem than a meeting and makes soft answers expensive. Propose three or four candidate days three to six weeks ahead, be explicit about the hours involved, and require firm answers. Who can when? collects them in one free poll with no accounts and sends the calendar invitation when you pick.
Say how much of the day you want
"Workshop on the 14th" and "workshop on the 14th, 09:30 to 16:00" get materially different answer sets, and the second one is the honest one. People who cannot give you the whole day should be saying no at this stage, not discovering it a week before.
Put the hours in the date option itself where you can, so nobody has to read the description to know what they are agreeing to.
Getting a usable answer
- Three or four days, spread over three or four weeks.
- Avoid Mondays and Fridays, which lose disproportionately to travel and part-time patterns.
- Turn maybe off if you need to commit a facilitator or a room.
- Ask who must be there and treat their answers as decisive rather than counting heads.
- Ask about accessibility and dietary needs in the comments, at the same time.
Book once
Rooms, facilitators and catering all get much more expensive to change than to book. Wait for the poll to close, pick, send the calendar invitation the same day, and only then commit to the rest.
Common questions
- Can I offer morning and afternoon on the same day as separate options?
- Yes. A date can carry a time, so the same day at 09:30 and at 13:00 are two options.
- How far ahead should I ask?
- Three to six weeks for a full day. A whole day is rarely free at shorter notice.
- How many participants can I invite?
- Up to 50 per date poll.
Ready when you are
Meetings and work
Getting a room full of calendars to agree without eight rounds of email.
Related
- Team offsite scheduling An offsite is a booking, a travel plan and twenty calendars. Fix the dates first, with one poll, then commit to the rest.
- Calendar poll Propose dates, let everyone mark them, and finish with a calendar invitation in everyone's diary. Free, no account, nothing to connect.
- Study group scheduling Five people, five timetables and a room that has to be booked. Propose the slots, count who can make each, and settle it in an evening.
Read next
- How to schedule a meeting with a group A short, practical method for getting a group of people onto one date: how many options to offer, how far ahead to ask, and how to close it out.
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