Irish Sign Language Potting Shed
The Potting Shed were delighted to be able to work with the Irish Deaf Society (IDS), for our most recent event. The IDS are the national Deaf-led organisation in Ireland which seeks to achieve and promote the Equality and Rights of Deaf people in Ireland.
We teamed up specifically with The Irish Sign Language Academy Dept. in the IDS, which commits in providing excellence in learning ISL nationwide. Whether it is learning the language for the first time or wanting to improve, they provide tailored courses passing on their rich culture and language heritage to students through their qualified Irish Sign Language teachers from Centre for Deaf Studies, Trinity College. They teach ISL for every age group at every level with many different topics and materials in classes.
Our goal for the evening was to conceptualise innovative methods of encouraging more people in Ireland to embrace Irish Sign Language. People learn ISL for many different reasons, necessity, a challenge, the fun of it, or for the future. We wanted to look at what could be done to make it even more enticing for the public to take up an ISL class and learn a fantastic new skill.
This included a look at:
- Marketing
- Brand / Image/ business brand
- Increase interaction and interest with public
- New ideas and ways to generate revenue / sales
We kicked off the evening in the stunning No.25 Fitzwilliam Place for what was one of our most interesting and lively evenings of brainstorming. The teams launched into action, discussing the brief and chatting witht the IDS members and translators to gain a better understanding of the obstacles their organisation faces. It was a wonderful experience for everyone to be brainstorming on the topic of sign language while people were signing all around them,
“it was a really immersive experience, so much better than just reading a brief “
The idea generation was high spirited with tables bouncing from blue sky thinking to solid business proposals and back again. As the evening came to an end the teams put forward their favourite ideas for the IDS team. Concepts ranged from a “Learn 26 letter in 26 days” initiative, signing family board games, signing emojis, a flag system for schools who make the extra effort to include all, strategic learning hubs around the country, team building exercises based through signing, communication and awareness workshops for industry, and many more brand and image related suggestions.
There was a great buzz after the event with many commenting it was one of their favourite Potting Sheds to date. We hope the team at IDS found it as useful and enjoyable an experience as we did and look forward to seeing where they take the organisation next.
You can find out more about IDS here https://
