11 day rolling open space

[Larry Peterson]

Robin:

Quite a few years ago, I Opened the Space for a four day city wide
conversation on Community Economic Development.  The sponsor was a local
coalition that wanted to engage as much of the community as possible.
About 500 people showed up for the opening and the conversations were
held the downtown university where we started and in offices and meeting
places across the city -- form corporate offices to community space.
The Wall was moved to a central location and the internet was also used
to post what conversations were happening where.  At the closing, about
100 folks showed up to tell stories and bring the intentional
conversations to an end.

Once we got the word out, the original space was much too small for the
opening and that made it difficult for some -- particularly the older
participants who did not want to fight through the crowds at the wall.
People did send in their reports by e-mail pretty well and we posted
them on a web site.  Some new businesses and connections resulted.  The
sponsors had mixed emotions about not being able to "see" what was
happening -- given that they were good social activists and that the
organization had to produce results to get funding for the future.

Larry

Larry Peterson
Associates in Transformation
Toronto, ON, Canada
416.653.4829

larry at spiritedorg.com
www.spiritedorg.com

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