Eight Steps for Co-designing Convening for Systems Change

Participating in convening events is a regular feature of civil society work. Many of us attend a patchwork of meetings each year, from online information-sharing sessions to residential retreats. Convening can spark and sustain collaboration, deepen learning and help align efforts for systems change. But it can also be costly and time-consuming, which is why convening must be purposeful, generative, and mindful not to duplicate existing efforts or overburden participants.

Over the last six months, Renaisi has partnered with Mission 44 to develop a tool for co-designing convening for systems change. Through evaluating the Foundation’s convening activities, examining best practice by interviewing experts and reviewing the literature, and testing what we learnt through applying the model to some of the Foundation’s current initiatives, we developed eight essential steps to guide the co-design process across three core phases of convening: design, delivery, and sustaining momentum afterwards or between convening moments. Here’s what we learnt about how to approach each step:

Step 1 – Define the Purpose

Start by clearly defining the purpose of the convening. Be specific about why it is needed and why now. The purpose should be informed by your understanding of the issue, the wider context, and any gaps or opportunities that convening could address. Question whether convening is the right tool to achieve your systems change goals before making a final decision.

Step 2 – Set the Desired Outcomes

Translate the purpose into specific, tangible outcomes. What do you want to change, influence or enable through the convening? Outcomes should be tightly aligned with the purpose but remain adaptable to the evolving context. Clarity here will ensure the convening stays focused and impact-driven.

Step 3 – Curate the Right Participants

Identify who needs to be in the room to achieve the desired outcomes — and equally, who does not. Prioritise the quality of participation over the number of participants. Ensure diverse representation, particularly from those with lived experience relevant to the focus area. Anticipate that participation needs may shift over time and design for this flexibility.

Step 4 – Design for Inclusive and Equitable Participation

Equity should be embedded across the design, delivery and follow-up phases. Create conditions that support diverse participation styles, remove accessibility barriers and acknowledge power dynamics. Build in safety for constructive disagreement while actively minimising potential harm.

Funders and conveners should be mindful of their power and positionality, stepping in to facilitate where helpful but avoiding dominance. 

Step 5 – Clarify Roles and Responsibilities

Define the roles and responsibilities of all involved — conveners, facilitators, participants — across all phases of the convening process. Be explicit about who is responsible for shaping the agenda, leading facilitation, driving post-convening actions and maintaining momentum. Be clear what is expected of participants and how that will be resourced.

Step 6 – Shape the Format, Structure, and Experience

Decide on the best format — in-person, online or hybrid — and choose locations, venues and schedules that support your purpose and outcomes. Be creative, and design something varied and unexpected. Curate the environment to be stimulating and connective, balancing content delivery with time for reflection, relationship-building and informal exchanges. Pay attention to the tone and atmosphere you want to create to support engagement.

Step 7 – Plan to Sustain Momentum

Develop a clear strategy for sustaining momentum after the convening. Define how actions and commitments will be followed up, how ideas will be resourced and how participants can stay connected. Establish mechanisms for ongoing accountability and learning so that the convening leads to concrete next steps.

Step 8 – Build in Evaluation and Learning

Create an evaluation framework to monitor progress against the convening’s outcomes and answer your key questions: did we achieve what we said we would? What can we learn from how the convening was implemented? How might we improve the convening? Select appropriate indicators and data collection methods, and plan for how insights will be generated, shared, and used to adapt future convening efforts. 

Please see some additional guiding questions in our 8 step visual and let us know what you think by emailing j.price@renaisi.com