Author: Matthew Stevens

LLST’s own Matthew Stevens was invited to speak at the 13th NATO OR&A (Operational Research and Analysis) Conference in Ottawa, Canada, on 7 Oct, 2019. Matt presented on the importance of modeling the behaviour of actors not traditionally represented in “wargaming” exercises, such as civilians and refugees or humanitarian workers. All too often, civilian or refugee behaviour is abstract (a […]

On October 6th, in a departure from our usual serious simulation and gaming, Lessons Learned participated in an experiment: an educational “megagame”, or large-format board game for 40+ players, in partnership with Ottawa Megagames. LLST and OMG co-sponsored the “edutainment” experience, “Undeniable Victory”, a simulation of the infamous Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88 by UK designer Ben Moores. Ben was flown […]

In early July, the Lessons Learned team presented the latest iteration of our introductory course, “The Day My Life Froze”: Urban Refugees in the Humanitarian System. Sixteen participants joined us at the Laurentian Leadership Centre from Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal, including humanitarian workers, government staff, journalists, “group of five” sponsors, and others. This diverse crowd made for rich conversation from […]

It’s been a busy few weeks as we prepare for our July 6/7 course here in Ottawa. We’re paying quite a bit of attention to the tactile experience of interacting with simulation components. How does the “look and feel” of simulation components impact the experience of participants? Here’s a tongue-in-cheek sneak peak of what’s in store, but there’s much more.

In preparation for our July 6/7 simulation-based course, “The Day My Life Froze”: Urban Refugees in the Humanitarian System, LLST organized an invite-only test-run of the simulation here in Ottawa on June 22nd.

The Lessons Learned team was invited down to Toronto to present our simulation as a workshop at the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Annual Conference in May. Given the large number of concurrent workshops, a drop-in drop-out format, and an inability to have participants pre-register, I came prepared with a presentation in case we were unable to […]

I was recently invited in to facilitate a lunch-and-learn event at CUSO in Ottawa, Canada, to demonstrate how serious games can be applied to humanitarian learning. Given that the session was scheduled for only an hour, I elected to present AFTERSHOCK, an excellent learning game developed by Prof. Rex Brynen (McGill/PAXsims.org) and Tom Fisher (Imaginetic). AFTERSHOCK participants are responsible for […]

Johanna Reynolds took the time to sit down with Matt Stevens, LLST’s Director and design lead. They chat about Matt’s history, why he formed LLST, and why simulations are important. Lessons Learned Simulations & Training (LLST) was founded in 2018 after you spent more than 10 years working with refugee and migrants, primarily in the Middle East. Tell us a […]

During the recent delivery of “The Day My Life Froze” at York University, LLST was privileged to be supported by Nicole Vassiliou, a volunteer with the Centre for Refugee Studies Student Caucus. Nicole is a Masters student at the Department of International Development at York University. She carried out her Masters research with refugees in Greece while completing an internship […]