Lunch and Learns vs. Workshops

I believe that having workshops where participants spend some time actually getting their hands dirty in some code is more valuable than a developer speaking about what they learned or why they think something is important.

People tend to forget about the lunch and learn if there is no hands-on component.

In stead of my developers doing a lot of lunch and learns, I would like them to be able to work together to develop small apps based upon some new technology or idea that they have learned.

Has anyone set something like this up at their workplace? I'm looking for feedback on the idea and/or better ways to manage these types of workshops.