Run a workshop in a canvas

A canvas workshop works when participants always know where to go, what to do, and what will happen to their input afterward. ALLO gives you the pieces: templates, pages, sticky notes, comments, sharing, guest access, live presence, chat, calls, and presentation. The facilitator’s job is to put those pieces in an order that does not make people think about the tool more than the work.

Use this guide for retrospectives, planning sessions, journey mapping, design critiques, research synthesis, lessons, client workshops, and team decision meetings.

Workshop roles and access

Before the workshop

Start from a template when the session has a known structure. Use a blank page canvas when the workshop is custom but still needs a sequence. Use a freeform whiteboard only when the workshop is intentionally open-ended and does not need presentation, PDF export, or page-by-page structure.

Create pages for the actual agenda. A common structure is welcome, context, activity 1, activity 2, synthesis, decisions, next steps, and parking lot. Rename pages manually so the slide rail reads like an agenda.

Place instructions on each page. Keep them short enough to read while people are also listening. Lock facilitator instructions and background frames so participants do not accidentally move them.

Upload source files, images, PDFs, and links before people join. Wait for previews and thumbnails to finish processing. If large media is still loading when the workshop starts, your first activity becomes watching a spinner together.

Decide what should be folded. Fold prep pages, facilitator-only notes, old drafts, and backup content that should not appear in presentation.

Set up tools for participants

Use Sticky notes for responses. Use shapes for areas, categories, lanes, or decision blocks. Use arrows for flows and relationships. Use spreadsheets for matrices, scoring, timing, or structured comparison. Use comments for questions that should be answered after the live activity.

If participants are new, add a tiny practice area on the first working page. Ask them to add one sticky note, move it, and leave one reaction or comment. The practice takes two minutes and saves ten minutes of confusion later.

Share the canvas

Share the canvas before the session with the right permission. If participants need to add notes, give edit access. If they only need to review and discuss, give comment access. If they are external, use Guest collaboration and test the entry flow.

For a live room, use QR sharing if available. For remote participants, send the canvas link, any PIN or password, the expected role, and the start page.

Do not give broad edit access to people who only need to observe.

Run the live session

Start with the welcome page and make sure everyone can open the canvas. Use live presence to confirm participants are in the right place. If people are scattered, use page links, the slide rail, or follow-style navigation to bring them back.

Use Call or Join if the session happens inside ALLO. Use Chat for quick coordination and timing. Use comments for questions, objections, or decisions that should remain after the meeting.

When participants add sticky notes, give them a clear time box and a clear place to put notes. After input, use grouping, Tidy Up, alignment, or manual clustering to make the page readable. Lock final clusters if they should not change during the next activity.

Use page comments for facilitator notes like "This activity needs follow-up" or "Skip next time." Use element comments for specific feedback on a note, file, or diagram.

Present and wrap up

Use Present a canvas for the final readout if the workshop is a page canvas on desktop. Check the slide rail before presenting. Fold scratch pages that should not be shown.

End with decisions and next steps visible on the canvas. Assign owners through project fields, subtasks, or comments with mentions. If the canvas belongs in a project, check labels, owner, due date, and section placement.

Export to PDF only after media finishes loading and page order is correct. If the canvas was a freeform whiteboard, use another handoff method because page-based PDF export is not the same workflow there.

After the workshop

Clean up the canvas while the session is still fresh. Resolve comments that were answered live. Mention owners on unresolved items. Move or copy the canvas to the right project. Archive scratch pages by folding them instead of deleting them if they might be useful later.

If the workshop format worked well, clean a copy and use Save as template if you have permission and the canvas type supports it. Remove participant names, private comments, customer data, and one-off answers before saving.

Workshop patterns

For a retrospective, use pages for check-in, what worked, what did not, themes, actions, and owner assignment. Sticky notes carry input; comments carry follow-up questions.

For a design critique, use one page per design area, upload source images or PDFs, ask reviewers to comment on specific objects, and end with a decision page.

For research synthesis, use a freeform whiteboard for raw clustering if the work is exploratory, then create a page canvas for the final readout.

For a client workshop, use guest links, comment or edit permissions deliberately, and hide internal prep pages before the client joins.

What can go wrong

If participants cannot edit, check share role, guest access, locked objects, and whether they are signed in or entering as expected.

If people get lost, improve page titles, use direct page links, open overview, and keep the slide rail visible for facilitators.

If the canvas becomes slow, stop uploading large files live, reduce heavy media on active pages, use sub-canvases for deep dives, and avoid keeping every participant on a giant media-heavy page.

If comments become noisy, resolve live decisions as you go and use page comments for broad session notes instead of scattering general feedback across random objects.

If export fails after the workshop, wait for media processing, check page order and folded pages, then use Fix a failed canvas export.