ReadyWhen The Lights Go Out
Who it’s for:
Museum staff, festival workers, arts and cultural administrators, emergency management professionals, public safety officers, emergency responders, and anyone else working in the arts, culture, and emergency preparedness. The activity works well both within and across sectors.
What it builds on: In this activity, everyone brings what they already know about their role, organization, and broader city or neighborhood. The game takes care of the rest.
What it adds: The gameplay will jumpstart how you think about readiness capacity. After playing, you’ll find you can already identify new ways to position your organization or community’s existing capacities, and you’ll also have ideas about the most strategic next steps.
Starting the conversation about readiness
The Tabletop is a facilitated experience of about 90-minutes, designed to fit as easily into a staff retreat or board meeting as into an emergency management workshop or conference breakout. Around the table, participants build a city as they walk through a scenario together, drawing cards and surfacing what their community already has, what’s missing, and who should be talking to whom before the next crisis arrives. Each round brings new challenges to confront… including an immersive finale!
It’s especially useful for arts and cultural organizations exploring their role in local readiness, for emergency management departments looking to build relationships with the cultural sector, and for municipal leaders, funders, and networks who want to move the conversation about emergency preparedness from abstract concern to concrete next steps. No prep required, no wrong answers, and everyone leaves with a new way of looking at readiness.
We can take care of bringing the activity to your gathering, or you can purchase a license to use it on your own, complete with facilitator guides and ready-to-print materials.