School of Planning, Design and Construction National Charrette Institute

The National Charrette Institute is pleased to offer its Complete Charrette System certificate training, which provides all of the content required to successfully prepare for, manage, and conduct a charrette.

You will learn to activate the unique creative potential of all stakeholders by embedding them in the design process to co-create a transformative plan, while saving time and money. Whether you are working on a community design, public policy or a company’s strategic plan, this course will equip you with a flexible, yet replicable, systematic project management process.

Who should take this training?

This training is ideal for anyone involved in transforming communities and organizations, those charged with managing charrettes, or who may hire a consultant to conduct a charrette, including city and regional planners, public health staff, developers, architects, land and transportation planning consultants, engaged citizens, directors and project managers.

The NCI trainings consistently attract top practitioners in the field from across the U.S. and abroad. Based on past evaluations, 95% of participants report that they regularly apply what they learned in NCI certificate trainings to their daily practice.

Modalities

The NCI Complete Charrette Certification Training is offered in three modalities:

In-Person: These 3-day trainings are typically held in the spring and fall each year in various locations across the country. Enrollment is limited to 40 participants. Click here to learn more about in-person training for an individual.

Online-Synchronous: These trainings are offered several times a year. They blend ~10 hours of independent, online learning with 12 hours of live, virtual labs where participants practice charrette preparation exercises. Click here to learn more about online synchronous training for an individual.

Online-Asynchronous: This training is available at any time and is a self-paced course with about ~10 hours of content, plus independent work such as readings and exercises. Click here to learn more about online asynchronous training for an individual.

Check out our Events calendar for the latest training opportunities.

Learning Objectives

• Learn about what a NCI Charrette is and understand its evolution and adaptability.
• Recognize where the charrette lies on the public participation spectrum and key challenges a charrette can address.
• Learn about a model for community in reach.
• Explore ways to work effectively and authentically across differences.
• Recognize the 10 key characteristics and three phases of the NCI Charrette process.
• Practice skills, tools and techniques to prepare for and facilitate an NCI Charrette or other engagement process.
• Recognize tools available to help a community achieve charrette readiness.
• Know best practices for planning meetings within a charrette.
• Practice visioning design exercises employed within charrettes.
• Explore how guidelines can help build trust during a charrette.
• Practice facilitation of meetings within a charrette.

What have participants said throughout the years?

• Great training! I have experienced charrette components from those that have previously completed the training but it is beneficial to have it reiterated and clarified.
• It was great! Very inspirational!
• Great crash course on charrette planning. Valuable flexible advice on 2 through 7 day charrettes/workshops.
• Great training!
• Great job! Loved the course and resources.
• Very comprehensive - looking forward to applying principles to all project types and sites.
• Thank you so much for providing this training. It was a great refresher and I learned new ways of thinking about preparing for charrettes. I love the idea of condensing the bulk of work into several days rather than dragging out.
• This course exceeded my expectations by a mile. I feel totally energized and inspired to go out there and put this to use.
• This course exceeded my expectations in terms of learning and enjoyment. Thank you so much to this expert team for teaching us and allow us to learn from each other! - 2025
• Thank you for the excellent facilitation, thought and care that went into it. - 2024
• This was probably one of the most useful trainings I've attended. Thank you for providing the training! - 2024
• A very healthy training for a time of considerable disagreement! The instructors set a great example of an ideal tone to set, for “planning the plan, to plan” - 2024
• Thank you so much for this opportunity — the amazing thing about this training is that I can apply it to more than just charrettes. I can use it during the public participation process as a whole. - 2024
• I am extremely grateful to the facilitators for the prep and presentation! - 2024
• Thank you very much! This was so valuable to both my design practice and as an intermittent lecturer/teacher. - 2024
• Such a wealth of rich information on charrette process, practice, and tools! I really appreciated how intentional the facilitation team was throughout. I had a fantastic experience and am looking forward to using the tools and information I learned. - 2024
• Overall I found a lot of valuable information in the course and have already used some aspect of what I learned in my position. - 2020
• The "what's in a name" exercise was surprisingly powerful and thought provoking - 2020
• This was tremendous. One of the best trainings I have ever attended. - 2020
• Best virtual training I've attended. The combination of discussion, Miro practice, and asynchronous videos provided a variety of experiences and opportunities to learn. - 2020
• Just thank you for offering this course. I have already recommended it to colleagues who do public participation work. - 2020
• I am excited to try these techniques. - 2019
• I feel inspired and equipped to serve my community - 2017