Date and time: Thursday 26 October & Friday 27 October 2023, 9.30am to 1.00pm AEDT (registration from 9.15am). Registrants are to attend both sessions. (full day workshop - 2 sessions)

Venue: Via Zoom. Details will be emailed to registrants just prior to the workshop start time

Facilitator: Dr. Samantha Abbato

Register online by: 25 October 2023. Spaces limited to 25 participants

Fees (GST inclusive): Members $295, Organisational member staff $415, Non-members $485, Student member $140, Student non-member $226. Students must send proof of their full-time student status to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Workshop Overview

In the context of continued underuse and misuse and increasing “over-use” of evaluation findings, effective reporting is now more critical than ever. Technological advances beyond the evaluation box disrupt traditional evaluation reporting approaches and offer an opportunity to increase the impact of evaluation.

We bring a “pictures and stories” approach to evaluation reporting in this workshop. We encourage and facilitate the use of technological advances and a transdisciplinary environment for maximising evaluation communication and use. It is designed for professionals who need to communicate evaluation findings and want to do so with greater effect.  The workshop will introduce a variety of visual reporting alternatives and techniques through practical activities. By the end, participants will see evaluation and reporting in a new light.

Workshop Content

The workshop will be interactive and involve sharing experiences and hands-on activities. A review of the communication, key messaging, and design principles covered in Making it Stick 1 workshop will provide the basis for participants to experiment with innovation to create memorable reports. Case studies from the presenter's experience as part of a multidisciplinary team, including videography, graphic design, virtual reality, systems thinking, and organisational psychology, will be discussed.

Throughout the workshop, participants can apply the learned knowledge to real-life examples in small groups. Participants will be provided opportunities to apply new skills to their own work between the workshop Zoom sessions.

Building from a review of the ‘Making it Stick 1’ introductory workshop, four main areas will be covered.

1. Visual alternatives to the written report:  Three groups of alternatives are introduced: (1) posters that incorporate visual storytelling based on qualitative evaluation evidence, (2) digital evaluation reporting with video and virtual reality and (3) online interactive visual reporting (including “showing and telling” stories through systems thinking software).

2. Planning a visual poster report: Participants are provided the opportunity to plan a visual poster report using effective design and communication principles, pictures, and stories. Together we explore how parts of this visual plan can be used to make the executive summary and other parts of the traditional written evaluation report ‘stick’. We consider the appropriateness, impact, design, and ethical aspects of incorporating images in visual reporting.

3. Digital storytelling: We explore storytelling methods for reporting evaluation. We introduce the story theme, story arc, and storyboard tools for showing the story and increasing the structure and impact of written reporting, and presentations. Participants have the opportunity to apply tools and templates for storyboarding evaluation findings to facilitate a collaborative approach and impactful storytelling.

4. Building an effective visual story: We expand on storyboarding by introducing the b-roll, and supporting visuals for ‘story showing’ and strengthening key messages. Learn how to develop a b-roll library, choose impactful b-roll and write visual notes to guide visual story development. We introduce a simple digital kit with tips and tricks to support you in capturing your own photos and footage to include in reporting.

Workshop Outcomes

This workshop is for evaluators and other professionals who would like to:

• Use technological advances in digital and online tools to move beyond the traditional written report to incorporating visual approaches such as video and interactive online reporting;

• Further their skills in telling a compelling story for communicating evaluation using storytelling tools such as story arc, storyboard, and software;

• Learn how to plan for a visual report using b-roll, visual notes, and technology that is at their fingertips, such as smartphones and iPads, to capture compelling images to support their story and visual reporting;

• Design a visual alternative to their written report and, at the same time, use the visual story elements to increase the stickiness of their written reports.

PL competencies

This workshop aligns with competencies in the AES Evaluator’s Professional Learning Competency Framework. The identified domains are

• Domain 1 – Evaluative attitude and professional practice;

• Domain 3 – Culture, stakeholders and context;

• Domain 5 – Project management;

• Domain 6 – Interpersonal skills;

• Domain 7 – Evaluation activities.

Who should attend?

This workshop is designed for professionals who commission, craft or use evaluation reports. It is designed as an ideal follow-on workshop for people who have completed “Making it Stick 1 – Crafting an Evaluation Report for Impact and Use”.  It is, however, not essential that participants have attended Stick 1.

Workshop start times

• VIC, NSW, ACT, TAS: 9.30am

• QLD: 8.30am

• SA: 9.00am

• NT: 8.00am

• WA: 6.30am

• New Zealand: 11.30am

• For other time zones please go to https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

About the facilitator

Dr. Samantha Abbato is the director of a transdisciplinary consortium of professionals, including a videographer, a graphic designer, a systems-thinker, and a virtual reality practitioner. Over the past 6 years the facilitator has successfully experimented across these other disciplines to un-box evaluation reporting.  She has had considerable experience crafting evaluation reports using these multidisciplinary tools across several sectors. She regularly facilitates workshops for AES professional development and for community and health sector clients, including in report crafting (AES 2017,2018, 2020) and systems thinking for evaluation (Melbourne AES 2015).

With a passion for communication, maximising evaluation use, and a transdisciplinary approach to evaluation, the facilitator is able to offer a wealth of case studies of unboxing and increasing the impact of evaluation reporting using transdisciplinary approaches.  Her most recent evaluation work includes evaluation and M&E reporting using systems thinking, videography, graphic communication, design thinking, and virtual reality. In addition, the facilitator has completed more than 100 evaluation and research reports and papers for a range of government, non-government organisations, and community stakeholders, including several peer-reviewed publications in 2018 incorporating transdisciplinary approaches.