How We Build AI Training Workshops for Hyde Park
Every workshop we run is built for the specific group attending. A workshop for associates at a small law firm on 53rd Street is different from a workshop for the program staff of a nonprofit near 47th Street, which is different from a workshop for physicians in a practice near UChicago Medicine. We interview the organization before designing the agenda, identify the specific workflows that are highest value, and build the curriculum around those workflows. Generic AI workshops waste everyone's time. Our sessions are always tailored.
The format we use most often is a half-day intensive. Three to four hours, small groups of six to twelve participants, held at your office or at a nearby space in Hyde Park. We have run sessions in conference rooms in buildings along Harper Court, in workspaces affiliated with the Polsky Center, in nonprofit offices throughout the neighborhood, and in university-adjacent meeting spaces. The half-day format works because it is long enough to produce real skill transfer but short enough to fit into the calendar of a busy professional.
The session is hands-on. Every participant brings a laptop, real work they are currently doing, and the AI tools their organization uses or is considering. We walk them through actual prompts, actual workflows, and actual outputs on their actual work. By the end of the session, each participant has produced something they can use: a redlined contract, a drafted grant paragraph, a set of customer service response templates, a research brief, a product description library. We have zero tolerance for training that ends in a slide deck instead of a deliverable.
We also teach the failure modes. Most AI failures in professional settings come from a small number of predictable patterns: hallucinated citations, shallow research, compliance violations, tone drift, and over-reliance. Participants leave our workshops knowing how to recognize and prevent each of these failure modes, which is often more valuable than learning any specific prompt.
For organizations that want sustained capability rather than a one-off session, we also offer a series format. Four to six sessions spread over two to three months, each building on the prior one, with between-session practice assignments. The series format works particularly well for professional services firms and nonprofits that want their entire team to develop AI fluency over a quarter rather than a day.
Industries We Serve in Hyde Park
Law firms and legal professionals on Lake Park Avenue, 53rd Street, and throughout the neighborhood train their associates and paralegals on AI-assisted document review, contract drafting, legal research, and client communication. We tailor curriculum to the firm's practice areas and the specific tools the firm is using.
Medical practices and healthcare professionals near UChicago Medicine and throughout Hyde Park train clinical and administrative staff on HIPAA-compliant AI use for documentation, patient communication, and workflow automation. We address the specific compliance considerations that clinical settings require.
Nonprofits and cultural organizations connected to the Hyde Park Art Center, the DuSable Museum, the Experimental Station, and other neighborhood institutions train their program, development, and communications staff on AI for grant writing, donor communication, program reporting, and social media. The workshops are especially valuable for small nonprofits without dedicated communications teams.
Consulting practices and research shops connected to the Booth School, the Polsky Center, and the broader University of Chicago research economy train their consultants on AI for research synthesis, client deliverable prep, proposal drafting, and meeting prep. The workshops fit the high-standards environment these professionals work in.
Executive and small-business leadership including owners of retailers on 53rd Street, 57th Street, and 47th Street, attend executive-level sessions focused on strategic use of AI in their businesses, including selecting tools, setting team policy, and identifying highest-value use cases.
Academic publishers and editorial operations connected to the University of Chicago Press, independent imprints, and journal publishers train their editorial, production, and marketing staff on AI for manuscript review, copyediting support, and promotional content.
What to Expect Working With Us
1. Organizational discovery. Before designing any curriculum, we spend a call or two understanding your organization, the roles of the people attending, and the specific work you want AI to support. This shapes the entire workshop.
2. Custom agenda. We deliver a written agenda for your approval a week before the workshop. It details every exercise, the tools used, and the deliverables each participant will produce.
3. Workshop delivery. We run the session at your Hyde Park office or a nearby space. We handle all logistics, materials, and tools. Your team shows up with a laptop and leaves with real skills and tangible deliverables.
4. Post-workshop support. We stay available by email for two weeks after the session to answer follow-up questions as your team starts applying what they learned. For organizations on a workshop series, we also include between-session check-ins.