charette

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
charette /ʃaˈrɛt/

▶noun N. Amer.

• 1 a public meeting or workshop devoted to a concerted effort to solve a problem or plan the design of something.

• 2 a period of intense work, typically undertaken in order to meet a deadline.

– origin Fr. charrette, lit. ‘cart’; possibly with ref. to the use of a cart in 19th-cent. Paris to collect architecture students' work on the day of an exhibition.