This is a bit lighter than some of my posts, but I had a wonderful time remembering creative responses to this challenge!

This week I had an email from a colleague who said “I’m working with a low budget non-profit who has gotten a free room. Unfortunately, there are no usable walls. Have you heard of anyone that has done a postcard CWM on another surface? I’m walking in cold and don’t know what resources will be available so I’m hoping to take what I need.”

I needed a break from a day of intense focus, so I brainstormed memories and thoughts and sent them to him.

“Things I have done in the past:

-use windows or window shades

– lean 3-4 tables up against a wall to become a flat wall. 

-line up a few flip charts to use as a wall for cards, or do a flipchart workshop.

-have people gather in a large circle and cluster cards on the floor between them.

-if the group is small and there is a large table, use it instead of the floor. 

-use a door or a fireplace or something like that— My husband was once in a heritage building where the back of the door was the only thing he could use. 

-hang strips of masking tape sticky side out from the ceiling, anchoring them with more tape on the ceiling (this was in a cook tent on traditional land that had a frame of 2×4’s, but all the walls were canvas)

-hang a sticky wall from a long clothesline, anchored either on the ceiling or something in the corners (actually I used flipchart pages hung from a clothesline in front of a bear skin because I didn’t have a sticky wall with me and stuck the cards on the flipchart pages)  

-if the weather is good, go outside and use an outside wall (once I used the outside of a tepee-shaped smokehouse — that was after we ran out of canvas walls). “

My wildest idea: There may be an electronic option, where you project a large screen and a person in each small group writes the cards electronically on their phone and uploads them to the computer that is projecting. I have not done this, and I’m not a techie, but I once saw a virtual whiteboard that could be accessed on a phone. 

Having a couple of sticky walls with you gives you more options.” 

Please add more ideas in the comments in order to help other facilitators with similar crises!