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AIN Learning Journeys are workshops held before our main conference. They cover in-depth topics led by experienced facilitators and often connect directly to the conference city or region. Over the years, Learning Journeys have become increasingly significant, with more than half of conference attendees booking them. And new for 2026, we are offering late-night Learning Journey experiences in Rimini! Amazing learning opportunities from top professional facilitators are taking place after 6 pm. What a great way to kick off the conference and meet other attendees! This year, our Learning Journeys occur on: Wednesday, October 21st and Thursday, October 22nd! Registration opens here on Thursday, September 10th at 1pm Eastern!
Learning Journey PricesPrices:
The Learning Journeys are full-day or half-day explorations on a specific Applied Improvisation topic, theme, or experience. Please be mindful of the times and select sessions that do not overlap. You can select and participate in more than one Learning Journey if you would like. Get the best deal by attending more than one. ** Please note: If you paid the BEST PRICE PACKAGE ($1100 USD), check your email for the special Learning Journey discount form to register for your Learning Journeys.
Selections
LJ #1 - Experience San Marino & Winery Tour Presenter: Mike Manchester Date: Wednesday, October 21st, 2026 Time: 7:30am - 5pm Description: We’ll depart from the conference hotel in the morning and travel to another country! The Republic of San Marino is actually one of the world’s oldest republics. A local professional guide will lead us on a 90-minute walking tour through its historic center, sharing the stories, history, and character of this remarkable hilltop country. From San Marino, we’ll continue into the countryside of Romagna for a visit to Enio Ottaviani Winery, a family-run winery located in the hills near Rimini. The experience will include a tour of the winery and an introduction to its wines, followed by a relaxed lunch featuring two Enio Ottaviani wines (price for this Learning Journey includes your pre-paid lunch/beverage fee). The winery describes itself as having “one foot in the vineyard and the other in the Adriatic Sea,” and its wines are closely connected to the landscape and traditions of the Rimini area. Afterward, we’ll return together to the hotel in Rimini. Participants are required to bring a valid passport or national identity card to visit San Marino. Included: round-trip transportation from the conference hotel, professional guided tour of San Marino, winery visit, lunch, and two wines. Click here to visit the winery website. Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern)
LJ #2 - Essential Foundations of Applied Improvisation Presenters: Ted DesMaisons, Roberto Hirche, Paul Z Jackson, Simo Routarinne, Raymond van Driel, and Ralf Wetzel Date: Wednesday, October 21st, 2026 Time: 8am - 5pm Description: Applied improvisation is a rich and diverse field, drawing on many disciplines, approaches and practitioners. But what are the essential foundations every applied improviser should know and experience This full-day Learning Journey offers a practical foundation for anyone who wants to build or deepen their applied improvisation practice. Through highly interactive, experiential sessions, participants will explore six cornerstone perspectives: Core principles, Second Circle Presence, Solution Focus, Status Interactions, Improvisation in organizational development, and Contracting with clients. Led by six internationally experienced practitioners, this Learning Journey will create an engaging environment in which participants experience the principles firsthand, reflect on their application, and strengthen their confidence and effectiveness as applied improvisation facilitators. Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern)
LJ #3 - Walking Around the Story: Imagining other Humans' Perspectives through Storytelling & Listening Presenters: Mike Perz and Lucy Young Date: Wednesday, October 21st, 2026 Time: 8am - 12pm Description: What stories do we hold about ourselves, our experiences with others and our past? Can the certainty of people's stories be loosened by speaking the stories and using our imagination to walk around the stories? Can we learn to listen to people we might disagree with to find new interpretations and common ground? Let’s loosen our grip on our stories and play with the possibilities! Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern)
LJ #4 - Beyond Performed Identity: Returning to Human Connection Through Improvisation Presenter: Xuan Zhao Date: Wednesday, October 21st Time: 1pm - 5pm Description: Many of us have learned to communicate by becoming legible: professional, polite, competent, efficient, agreeable, clear. These skills help us function. But they can also leave us speaking through roles, expectations, and protective habits rather than from a fully human place. We become good at performing communication while feeling less and less free inside it. This Learning Journey is an invitation to slow down and notice what has been layered onto the self: identity scripts, social habits, and protective patterns that often speak before we do. Through applied improvisation, embodied experiments, miscommunication, and creative repair, we will explore what happens when the pressure to perform the “right” self begins to soften. What becomes possible when we stop trying to communicate correctly and start responding as people? Participants will leave not with a polished script, but with something more vital: a felt sense of greater freedom, responsiveness, and trust in their own human capacity to connect; even in uncertainty, imperfection, and not knowing. Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern!)
LJ #5 - Stop Sounding Impressive: Using Clown to Discover What Makes You Memorable Presenter: Jessica Breitenfeld Date: Wednesday, October 21st Time: 6pm - 10pm Description: In a world where facilitators are expected to constantly present, position, and promote themselves, many of us end up sounding more polished than human. This Learning Journey uses applied improvisation and clown to explore how we construct professional identity online, particularly on LinkedIn, and what happens when we try to “sound impressive” instead of real. Participants will move through a full experiential arc combining playful status experimentation to uncover how identity is performed, exaggerated, or hidden in professional contexts. Together, we will explore how your passion, humour (there are 9 types), and vulnerability can create more memorable and meaningful ways of describing who what we do. The session supports participants in developing a more human, grounded, and expressive way of presenting themselves professionally without falling into performative self-branding. Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern)
LJ #6 - Yes, And We Are All Frauds: A Guide to Understanding and Overcoming Imposter Syndrome Presenter: Ronald Harvey Date: Wednesday, October 21st Time: 6pm - 10pm Description: Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern that involves persistent self-doubt about one’s abilities, accomplishments, and worth, despite external evidence of competence and success. In this workshop, participants will learn about the different kinds of imposter syndrome, how it affects them, and participate in improv games that directly address these imposter syndrome patterns. We will do improv scenes about specific imposter syndrome types and exercises to accept compliments and affirmations. The workshop encourages a lighter touch and to laugh with our discomforts and empathize with others struggling with imposter syndrome. Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern!)
LJ #7 - The art of *melting* the ice: How to warm up any group without awkward icebreakers Presenter: Jan Keck Date: Thursday, October 22nd Time: 8am - 12pm Description: You know the moment. The room is full, the session is about to start, and someone suggests an icebreaker. Half the group groans internally. A few people check their phones. Someone at the back hopes they won’t be called on. The problem isn’t the people. It’s the design. In this half-day Learning Journey, you’ll experience what it feels like to be in a group that warms up gradually, intentionally, and without anyone feeling put on the spot. Then you’ll learn the design logic behind every moment you just lived through. Based on the Campfire Method from Jan’s book The Campfire Method, this session gives you a transferable framework for designing warm-ups that actually work: for quiet participants, for sceptics, and for groups that have never met before. Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern!)
LJ #8 - The Attuned Facilitator: The Missing Piece in Elevating Facilitation—Understanding Nervous Systems Presenter: Robin Fox Date: Thursday, October 22nd Time: 8am - 12pm Description: Understanding neurodiversity is a doorway to empathy. The more we understand the different ways people experience the world, respond to stress, process information, and move through social environments, the better able we are to meet the needs of the diverse people we teach, support, guide, and work alongside. This experiential Learning Journey explores how mindfulness, body awareness, nervous system regulation, and Applied Improvisation can deepen our ability to attune to others while staying bravely connected to ourselves. Through movement, improvisation, reflection, and interactive exercises, participants will explore how pacing, presence, sensory awareness, and emotional tone shape every group experience. Together, we will examine how self-regulation and co-regulation influence connection, participation, learning, and belonging. Participants will leave with practical tools for creating spaces where different minds, communication styles, sensory experiences, and ways of being can thrive. Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern!)
LJ #9 - Improvise What You Know: The Art & Technique of Actors' Improv Presenter: Bobbi Block Date: Thursday, October 22nd Time: 9am - 4:30pm Description: This program explores the art of being human by teaching a honed method for improvising authentic human relationships. Just as writers are advised to 'write what they know,' participants are taught to improvise from their own experiences and meld fact with fiction. This truth-inspired method allows both comic and dramatic moments to arise organically. Participants learn to simultaneously behave as both actor and playwright to build the dramatic arc of a scene. They practice emotional literacy to create a strong emotional point of view for their character, and explore openness to being altered by others' offers. These behaviors are directly applicable to the art of human conversation. While we will certainly take some time to debrief this method’s endless applications beyond the stage, the overall objective of this program is personal growth in the art of improvised theater for performance. Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern!)
LJ #10 - THE COURAGE TO BE SEEN - From the Chameleon to the Gift in the Crack Presenters: Riccardo Ballerini Date: Thursday, October 22nd Time: 8am - 5pm Description: First, learning to see ourselves. Then, discovering the courage to be seen. The Chameleon begins with awareness—exploring how we adapt, move, express ourselves, and the “masks” or patterns we may inhabit. The Gift in the Crack then takes the journey deeper, exploring what we protect or keep hidden, and how vulnerability can be acknowledged, transformed, and brought into relationship with others. Together, they become one journey: from seeing ourselves more clearly to experiencing what becomes possible when we allow ourselves to be seen. Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern!)
LJ #11 - Introduction to Applied Improvisation Presenter: Patrick Short Date: Thursday, October 22nd Time: 1pm - 5pm Description: A workshop for first-time attendees and people who want to sharpen their practice in Applied Improvisation. Wear both participant and facilitator hats as we experience a half-day workshop for suitable for corporate, government, non-profit, NGO and other organizations, led by AIN Board Vise President Patrick Short. We'll also discuss the best ways to get the most of your AIN Conference experience. Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern!)
LJ #12 - The Craft of Applied Improvisation: A Deep Dive Into What Makes It Work Presenter: Paul Z Jackson Date: Thursday, October 22nd Time: 1pm - 5pm Description: This Learning Journey is for experienced Applied Improvisation practitioners who want a half-day guided exploration of what actually makes this work succeed in real settings. Together we will look beyond activities and into the craft of Applied Improvisation: the facilitator’s judgement, the relationship with the group, the design choices that shape the session, and the turning points where a piece of work either succeeds, fails or recovers. The half-day will be highly practical and participative. We will use improvisation ourselves throughout: short activities, live demonstrations, structured reflection and peer analysis of real practice. The aim is transformative insight and usable takeaways for practitioners who want to become more precise, adaptable and effective in their work. Click here to register for this Learning Journey. (Registration opens on Thursday, September 10th at 1PM Eastern!) REFUND & EXCHANGE POLICYIf you cancel your Learning Journey(s) before Friday, October 2nd, you will receive a full refund (minus a $25 USD administrative and processing fee). After Friday, October 2nd, we can give you a 50% refund. If you wish to change your Learning Journey to a different selection, please note that this is handled individually. You must email us at [email protected] to make any changes to your selections. At any time, you can provide/gift your Learning Journey seat to anyone, for no extra charge. You must email us at [email protected] with the person's name and email address who will be taking your Learning Journey seat. (Last Updated: Wednesday, September 9th, 2026) Photos featured on this page are from the 2024 AIN Global Conference in Prague. |
