What we do: higher education
Workshop3C
Three to four days, students from different courses, an innovation challenge set by your organisation. accro has run Workshop3C since 2020, from €2,500.
Workshop3C harnesses students’ creative thinking to respond to an innovation challenge set by an organisation.
A company, a local authority or an association submits a question. Students with complementary skills take it on, work together across disciplines and develop several innovative solutions, which they present as a pitch. accro runs the whole process using a creative methodology.
The workshop does not deliver a ready-made action plan. It opens up the field of possibilities for everyone involved.
Where the name comes from
The 3Cs are three components. When the scheme was designed in late 2019, the idea was to bring together three families of skills that rarely meet: creatives, engineers and managers. Five editions later, the principle still holds. What changes from one year to the next are the courses involved, depending on the question asked.
A range of options, not a winner
Workshop3C does not always single out one winning solution. It produces several complete proposals, between two and seven depending on the edition, each backed by a budget and a timeline.
The client decides what happens next. It can adopt one proposal and make it its own, combine several, or simply leave with a fresh perspective on its question. When one or more teams are named winners, their results are assigned to the client under a contract signed with each student concerned.
What everyone gains
- The partner organisation leaves with conceptual proposals, visions and strategic recommendations it can act on directly.
- Students tackle a real brief, develop their soft skills and practise collective innovation. In the 2020 edition, they rated the experience 4.7 out of 5.
- accro stays in touch with the region’s creative and management courses, and puts its method to the test on a subject it did not choose.
How it works
The process
Three to four days, usually in January.
- Immersion. The client presents its context and its question. In some editions, this first day takes place in the field: in 2024, students spent the day in the Northern Vosges, from Niederbronn to Lichtenberg Castle.
- Divergence. Identifying the real issues behind the question, then generating ideas in bulk. The 2021 edition produced 254 sticky notes and 143 ideas in two days.
- Convergence. Each team selects one option and develops it into a formal proposal.
- Presentation. A pitch to the client, the accro team and guests.
Who does what
accro coordinates, develops the methodology and facilitates the workshop sessions. At the end of the workshop, the association hands over a summary deliverable: the process, the results and a method guide. The partner organisation proposes the theme and takes part in several stages. Students are split into multidisciplinary teams and work independently, with advice from the accro team.
The framework
Participation rules are signed by each student and by the partner organisation. They cover confidentiality, ownership of results and image rights.
What it costs
From €2,500 including VAT. The price depends on the duration, the number of teams and the level of support required. Payment is made in two instalments: 30% on signing the quote, the balance at the end of the workshop. An outside speaker can be added when the subject calls for it.
A workshop built into degree courses
Since 2020, Workshop3C has brought together students from the Faculty of Economics and Management and from IRIUS (University of Strasbourg), from LISAA and from the DU Disrupt 4.0. It is listed in the University of Strasbourg catalogue as “Workshop 3C avec accro / Solution Lab” (Master’s in Applied Foreign Languages, Collective Intelligence and Innovative Ecosystems in Europe track; 16 hours of tutorials).
Taking part
You are an organisation
You have an innovation question to explore, a use to understand, a service or a venue to reinvent. No sector is excluded. The next edition is scheduled with the client and the partner courses. Propose a challenge.
You are a training institution
Your students gain a real brief, a cross-disciplinary framework and the experience of presenting to a real client. accro brings the method, the facilitation and the network. Become a partner course.