Running Awesomeville Online, Facilitator Guide

Before the session

Have the play link ready to paste into the chat.
Set up breakout rooms, 3–5 students each.
Decide your Wildcard moment. About two-thirds of the way through works best.
Tell students one person per team will drive and share their screen.

Run sheet, 60 minutes

0–5, Set it up. Explain the goal in one line: build a business that solves a real problem for your town. Paste the link. Everyone opens it.

5–10, Read the town. Still in the main room, ask two or three teams to say their town out loud. It gets people talking and shows how different the draws are.

10–30, Breakout rooms. Teams pick an opportunity and start the Blueprint. Drop into rooms and ask questions rather than giving answers: Who exactly is your customer? Why would someone choose you over doing nothing?

30–40, The Wildcard. Send a broadcast message to every room: "Wildcard time. Hit the purple button." Everyone reacts at once. Give them ten minutes to adapt.

40–55, Pitches. Back to the main room. Each team shares their screen and pitches from their Blueprint. One to three minutes each. Vote on best solution, best pitch, most creative.

55–60, Reflect. Teams hit Aha! Moment and answer the questions. Ask them to hit Share and paste their link in the chat so you have their work.

Eleven Wildcards work differently online

Eleven cards in the printed deck involve another team: visiting them, swapping with them, or merging with them. That doesn't work in a breakout room, so the online version swaps them for equivalents that keep the same spirit:

Spy becomes Intel Leak: A rumour about your plans has spread through town. Announce one part of your idea publicly. How do you stay ahead of anyone who copies it?
Saboteur becomes Sabotage: Something critical breaks. Pick one major feature of your business that must change.
Reverse Pitch keeps its name online: A customer in your town suggests a completely different use for your business. Incorporate it.
The Great Swap becomes Reassigned: Discard your chosen Opportunity and draw a new one. Adapt your business to serve it.
Double Trouble keeps its name online: Draw a second Wildcard and resolve both.
Dream Team becomes New Hire: Your town's most talented resident joins your team. Invent them. What skill do they bring, and how does it change your business?
Merger becomes Acquisition Offer: A big company offers to merge with your business. Decide whether to say yes, and what changes if you do.
Copy the Best becomes Best in Class: Adopt the strongest feature of any famous business and make it fit your town.
Two Towns becomes Second Location: Draw a second Town card. Expand your business to work in both towns.
The Great Gift becomes Mystery Delivery: Draw one extra card of your choice — Town, Opportunity, Bylaw, or Wildcard — and work it into your business.
Change of Scenery becomes New Address: Return your Town card and draw a new one from the deck. Your business moves; make it work.

All of them are self-contained, so none need anything from you. Intel Leak works best if the team posts their announcement in the chat.

Broadcasting the Wildcard

Zoom: in Breakout Rooms, choose Broadcast Message to All, type the message, send.
Teams: in the Rooms panel, use the announcement option to make it appear in every room.

Shorter and longer versions

45 minutes: cut the town-sharing at the start and give 15 minutes of breakout time.
90 minutes: add a second Wildcard, and give teams five minutes of questions after each pitch.

Things that go wrong, and the fix

A team hates their town. They can hit Reshuffle. It keeps whatever they've typed.
Someone drops out of the call. Their work is still in their browser when they come back.
A team goes quiet. They've usually skipped straight to the solution. Send them back to the problem: who is this actually for?
Nobody wants to pitch. Let them read straight from the Blueprint. That's what it's for.

Getting their work

Share copies a link that carries their whole Blueprint. Ask for it in the chat before you close the session, because their work only lives in their own browser.