Stop Calling Everything a Workshop

Pop quiz: which of these is a workshop?

1. A presentation followed by a Q&A

2. A lecture by a subject matter expert

3. A spontaneous, unplanned brainstorming session

4. An interactive session structured around collaborative activities and the exchange of ideas

5. All of the above

If you said 4, you’d be right. But from some of the "workshops" I attended this year, it seems there are plenty of people who’d pick one of the other answers.

So when is it a workshop and when is it something else? And why does that matter? Because calling everything a workshop makes it harder to run a real one and to get genuine engagement from participants.

Let’s break it down

Workshops are interactive.

A presentation with passive listening and a short Q&A is not a workshop. It’s a presentation. I’ve seen these rebranded as workshops to make them sound more appealing, often when they’re mandatory training sessions. That sets participants up for disappointment. If most of the agenda is slides and a single person talking, be honest and call it what it is. Workshops should include interaction, sharing ideas, and collaboration.

Workshops are not seminars.

Seminars are valuable and worth attending, but they aren’t workshops. A one-hour lecture from an expert has great learning potential, yet it’s misleading to package it as a workshop. When you call it a workshop, I come expecting hands-on exercises or trouble-shooting space. That mismatch only hurts the expert delivering the session. Better to name it what it is so people arrive ready to listen, not waiting for activities that never come.

Workshops require preparation.

An unplanned brainstorm with no clear goals, no facilitation, and no structure is not a workshop. These often feel arbitrary or chaotic, and participants leave wondering if anything was achieved. A true workshop has intention. Participants know why the session is happening, why they were invited, and what will happen afterward. That preparation makes the outcomes more useful and the experience more rewarding.

So what really makes it a workshop?

An interactive session built around activities and the exchange of ideas. And yes, it matters if you mislabel other formats as workshops. When people think workshops are just another word for "sit and listen" sessions, they arrive disengaged. That forces facilitators to spend their energy rallying the group’s interest instead of focusing on the goals and outputs.

If your organizational culture is to call everything a workshop, then nothing is a workshop. The term only holds meaning when participants expect to contribute and collaborate.

The bottom line

Call a session what it is. Setting clear expectations is more honest, helps people show up prepared, and builds the conditions for real workshops to succeed.