NEWS
News from
THENOVA
NEWS / 2 MAY 2023
It's time to say goodbye...
On April 30, THENOVA project was finished. Looking back at the project hypothesis – to which extent theatre-based methods can be used to promote innovation in a company, we and our target groups can definitely confirm this. There was acting, controversial discussion and improvisation in front of the camera – with the necessary seriousness, but also with a lot of fun and great learning effects allowing for opening minds and creating a harmonious atmosphere required to start generating innovations. How do I and others appear in everyday situations? What power do our choice of words, tonality, facial expressions and gestures convey? All this was looked at from a new perspective, so that the teams and workshop participants profited in many ways.
In conclusion, we would like to thank all those who made this project possible and who can now use their experiences and new perspectives in diverse interaction contexts. Thanks also to all the guests and workshop participants who courageously got involved in the tried and tested theatre-based methods!
NEWS / 27 APRIL 2023
Multiplier Event in AUSTRIA
The Multiplier Event in Austria was implemented by the FHJ team on April 25 in one of the guest rooms of the Wildmoser restaurant in Graz. The room was very suitable for the selected event formats, which were a mix of classical presentations, discussions and activity-based sessions, embedded in a cozy setting.
27 external guests participated in the event. The fields of activity of the participants were very diverse: they were representatives of the construction industry, design companies, the legal and administrative sector, e.g. the City of Graz, health care and social enterprises.
Apart from the presentations that highlighted the features and added value of the THENOVA outputs for our target groups, the FHJ team organized short round tables dedicated to viewing and discussing THENOVA learning videos in changing groups. Then the discussion results from the different groups were put together and presented to the audience.
The FHJ team was happy to learn that the event guests expressed their willingness to deal with some topics by means of the presented methods, both in the form of a guided workshop or through the guidance provided by the learning videos.
NEWS / 27 APRIL 2023
Multiplier Event in GREECE
THENOVA Greek partner IDEC conducted its multiplier event on Tuesday, 25th of April, in Athens with great success. 30 people from small and medium companies, Human Resource managers and trainers joined the event, which had the form of a workshop led by trainer Ersi Niaoti. The challenge to coordinate and engage thirty people in one session was great, but due to the quality of the exercises and the participants’ willingness to absorb this new knowledge, it resulted to an impressive outcome.
The workshop started with warm-up exercises, continued with communication exercises such as the typewriter, and proceeded with trust exercises. Of course, the weight exercises were a big part of the workshop, having a great effect on the participants. Improvisations and brief scenes were performed towards the final part of the workshop, creating an atmosphere of excitement and exhilaration.
The feedback collected was extremely positive, which was also obvious from the discussions that took place after the end of the Multiplier event. Once again, THENOVA had a great effect on everyone, raised creativity and enhanced our trust to theatre-based methods.
NEWS / 24 APRIL 2023
Multiplier Event in GERMANY
“Anything but boring” was the résumé of the multiplier event of the project in Bielefeld, which placed theatre-based methods in the context of organisational and team development. The highlights of the event that happened on April 21, 2023 were definitely lots of movement and … a live crime thriller!
The event was designed and implemented by joint efforts of three German project partners, which were Energie Impuls OWL, Fachhochschule des Mittelstandes, and Bayenwerft Rhenania Kunsthaus. After an introductory summary of the project, in which both the scientific background and examples of brilliant acting performances were presented, all the guests had already made themselves comfortable in their chairs with a drink. But then suddenly there was movement in the group. Under a pretext, one of the theatre experts lured the guests out of their comfortable role as audience members: whether as players in a live crime thriller or as guided through a crowd of people with their eyes closed – the participants could no longer escape the concentrated power of theatre and the effect of the intentional and unintentional interaction with others. With their heads full of impressions, there was plenty of fresh conversation afterwards at the buffet.
NEWS / 18 APRIL 2023
Multiplier Event in POLAND
“Emotions in Different Roles We Take Upon” – under this exciting motto the multiplier event in Lublin (Poland) took place. The event was organised on April 17, 2023 by PAIZ Konsulting project team together with Lublin Business Club – The Mentor Club, and NN Theatre demonstrating one of the way of cooperation between training provider, business and creative industry.
The event was organised for business mentors as a professional development opportunity. It was a live event for the participating trainers, mentors and SME owners with virtual participation of one of the speakers.
The highlight of the event was a location since it took place in an actual theatre, on the stage! This setup created natural surroundings for PAIZ trainers – Katarzyna and Artur to introduce THENOVA project results and involve the participants in the theater-based training performed right there on the stage.
There were 34 external participants representing mentors, coaches, SME consultants and internal trainers, adult educators and business owners as well as managers. All participants extremely enjoyed the meeting in which they were able to try out theater based techniques to use them later in their work. The meeting full of enthusiasm encouraged the participants to learn more about the videos and results of the THENOVA project.
NEWS / 4 APRIL 2023
Save the date: Multiplier Event in Germany
A special news for our German followers: on Friday, April 21, from 13:00 to 17:00 o’clock we cordially invite you to the final event of the THENOVA project! You will experience an exciting mix of classical contributions and unconventional interpretations all around the topic companies’ daily life. For more information, please see the invitation below, and feel free to forward it to your friends and colleagues.
The event is completely free of charge!
We look forward to your registrations until April 18 at https://www.energie-impuls-owl.de/projects/thenova/ or directly by Mrs. Monika Pieper pieper@energie-impuls-owl.de .
We wish you a happy Easter!
Your THENOVA team in Germany
NEWS / 29 MARCH 2023
March 27, 2023: Final partner meeting in AUSTRIA
The final meeting in Graz concluded in the best way the consortium’s work for more than two years. On March 27, the partners met in this picturesque Austrian city, at the FH JOANNEUM and vividly discussed the final results of their pilot theater-based sessions with employees, the creative process leading to the production of theater-based learning videos, and generated exciting ideas for the scenarios of the upcoming Multiplier events. The sustainability of the project and future collaborations monopolized the conversation in a great atmosphere that was characteristic throughout the project’s lifespan.
A guided tour through the city offered by our passionate colleague Alexandra from the department of Construction and Architecture, and a great common dinner (keyword bear’s garlicJ) rounded up our harmonious reunion
NEWS / 20 DECEMBER 2022
December 12 -13: Transnational partner meeting in Poland
Shortly before the Christmas holidays, the THENOVA team conducted the 5th transnational partner meeting in lovely Lublin, which is the residence of our Polish project partner PAIZ Konsulting. We spent two very intensive and fruitful days to exchange about our recent achievements and to fix the actions we need to perform until the project’s end.
With a portion of pride, the partners talked about the feedback from staff members from companies who took part in the pilot theater-based training sessions offered by the trained THENOVA trainers. Despite of the global anxiety, energy crisis, and pandemics, the partners managed to implement 22 training sessions using disruptive theater-based methods, and to reach about 180 participants across Germany, Austria, Greece and Poland so far. The topics of the training courses were basically dedicated to the successful performance at workplace, such as conflict management, intergenerational communication, setting goals, giving and receiving feedback, overcoming stage fright, and many others. The training participants highlighted a very practical nature of these training sessions, their high level of interactivity, innovative exercises and the obligatory reflection round at the end of each training, which helped trainees elaborate their own strategies towards improving their behavior at workplace.
Another hot agenda topic dealt with the last preparations to the production of video-based tutorials. THENOVA partners exchanged their final ideas for the design and technical implementation of 30 scenes that dealt with topics all around the companies’ daily life. A real challenge that will require all of us to step out of the comfort zone! Follow our developments at Facebook and LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel to learn from our experience!
A big THANKS to our hosts Katarzyna, Barbara, and Artur for taking care of us during our stay as well as for the opportunity to experience Lublin in the beautiful winter aura! Christmas can come!
NEWS / 20 JULY 2022
July 14 - 15, 2022: Transnational partner meeting in Greece
Greece is well known as the birthplace of theatre – THENOVA project meeting there is a must! That’s why we immediately followed the invitation of our partner IDEC located in Piraues to conduct our next transnational partner meeting in sunny Greece.
As always, the partners were ready to work hard in a very informal and enjoyable atmosphere that accompanied the in-person meetings in this project. The discussions were dedicated to the exchange of experiences obtained by THENOVA trainers from the implementation of the first theater-based training sessions: what went particularly well? How to keep trainees’ attention during the entire training? How to intervene in case of loosing the group dynamics? This discussion was valuable for THENOVA partners who did not implement their training sessions yet.
At the same time, we talked about the effective strategies to design the next output, which is video-based Open Educational Resources. Partners shared their ideas about the storyboards for the videos, which are expected to be delivered by September 2022. To awake partners’ creativity, Gregor and Signe from Rhenania made a performance in front of camera helping understand the magic power of body expression.
On the personal side, the surroundings, the atmosphere of the seaside as well as the sunset dinner made our meeting unforgettable!
See you next time in (hopefully) snowy Lublin!
NEWS / 24 NOVEMBER 2021
Towards becoming artists: training week for THENOVA company trainers
It has finally happened: theatre-based training week for THENOVA company trainers! 12 attendees from THENOVA partner institutions met in person from October 11 to 15, 2021 in Cologne to benefit from the knowhow of professional artists from the actors’ network Rhenania. The goal of the 5-day intensive training was to equip participants with theater-based and performative techniques allowing them to create and deliver inspiring company training sessions.
To this end, Rhenania team designed and implemented a practical workshop week based on body contact, interaction and communication among trainees and instructors. The participants were trained in using self-awareness techniques, stepping into different roles, storytelling and improvisation methods, playing scenes, performing in front of camera – and all this in the context of company training.
A special highlight of the training week were trainees’ own performances on a real stage of the Metropol theatre in Cologne. THENOVA participants designed and performed their own scenes from everyday corporate life, such as team building, conflict management, communication or leadership. In addition, these performances were recorded by a professional cameraman. This increased the feeling of being actors and performers among the attendees ever!
Each training day resulted in a reflection session, which helped understand the relationship between the performative methods and their application in a specific context.
The workshop week was highly appreciated by THENOVA trainers, who cannot await trying all the innovative techniques they learned when conducting their corporate training. At this point, once again a big thanks to the acting coaches Signe Zurmühlen, Frank Baumstark and Gregor Weber from the Rhenania network for their amazing and inspiring training concept.
The good news is: not only THENOVA trainers can benefit from the knowhow of the professional artists. All the practical exercises, enriched with some recordings of the training sessions, are currently being written down and will form the heart of the theatre-based training program for company trainers, which will be then made freely accessible to wider audience.
NEWS / 24 MARCH 2021
Unlocking potentials in times of lockdown: THE NOVA kickoff meeting
On December 8, 2020 THE NOVA partners met for the virtual kickoff! 6 partner institutions from Austria, Germany, Greece and Poland who are passionate trainers and teachers and professional performers talked about how theater-based training could foster innovation spirit in small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe. The highlights of the meeting were, in fact, short performances, which were integrated into the discussions by our partner Bayenwerft Kunsthaus Rhenania e.V. – a perfect illustration and foretaste of what is to come!
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About the project
A Project for Theater-based training for supporting innovations in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
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