The short answer:
design some posters or canvases and print them
draw by hand posters on flip chart papers
sketch live during the workshop
My favorites? Bringing a poster (printed or made by hand) as it helps me ensure that I don't forget key information during the workshop and I can just look at that and don't have to bring other notes.
The problem
Sometimes there is no projector in the room where you’ll do your workshop, or it’s broken or you do your workshop in a location where it wouldn’t work out, like in a park or in a forest.
This is a problem for me as I usually rely on slides to run my workshops.
It's not a real problem
What if that problem was in fact a defining feature for that workshop.
In such moments I try to not fight against the problem but instead play with the constraints.
The solution 1: printed posters and canvases
I’m a big user and fan of custom made canvases printed on big A0 posters. These are awesome to run a workshop without slides because you have all the structure and tips directly on the poster.
When you launch an activity you can simply make a demo on one of the posters and people are ready to go.
In other workshops instead of having inspiration slides I printed out posters with all the inspirations and this allowed us to have a sort of inspiration exhibition within the workshop room.
Solution 2: hand made posters
For some workshops I used some big flip chart poster size papers and drew by hand a condensed version of my slides on two posters:
Onboarding poster: a poster with all the onboarding information (timing, overview of the activities, workshop rules, welcome word)
Activities poster: a poster with all the activities described with their goal, steps, timing and even a demo when needed
A nice tip if you go with hand drawn posters is to first draw a shitty small scale version on a sticky note before committing to do it on the poster.
Solution 3: live sketching
As one day I shared a photo of a poster I drew by hand for a workshop without projector some smart people reminded me of another option in the comments: sketch the activity descriptions live during the workshop.
If you’re someone who doesn’t like to sketch live you can even ask someone to do it for you so that you can concentrate on the explanation side.
My personal preference
Personally I like to come in a workshop with all my stuff ready to be used, this gives me a sense of calm that allows me to be more concentrated on the delivery than thinking: shit have I forgotten to give a key information?
Then between hand drawn and printed posters I choose depending on the culture of the organization and the feeling I want to give.
If I want to give a sensation of « this is serious work » then I’m going to prepare printed posters that are branded in the colors of the organization.
If I want to give a sensation of « this is creative and fun work » then I’m going to prepare the posters by hand.