pre-spacing

[Chris Corrigan]

In a round about way I have done one OST that had pre-posted sessions,
but it was more the result of last minute changes than anything.  Here's
what happened.

I was once asked to come in a late date and help "save" a conference
that was not being planned very well.  The person in charge of the
agenda had booked 2.5 days full of half hour presentations: eight each
morning and eight each afternoon.  The planning committee was in a jam.
There was no way to schedule discussion and the presenters had all been
booked and confirmed and no one relished the thoughts of sitting through
2.5 days of 24 power point presentations in a dark room with no breaks
or conversation.

They contacted me to see what we could do with open space, and after a
few discussions we decided to turn the conference inside out.  We kept
all the presenters on the agenda, but we made the presentation centre
only one of the places people could go during the conference.  We sent
out the invitation again saying that we were combining presentations
with conversation and that p[people should come prepared to post topics
with questions or best practices.

We set up the conference site with one corner of the ballroom laid out
with a few rows of chairs, a screen and a projector.  All the sessions
that were scheduled for presentations would happen there.  A schedule
was posted at the presentations centre and another posted on the agenda
wall.  To give time for the opening, we moved the whole schedule up an
hour and had people present straight through lunch, which worked pretty
well.  Day one, we opened the usual way and people convened hour long
sessions during which two presentations ran.

There were two interesting things that happened.  First, the
presentations ran predictably over time, meaning that there were still
presentations happening at the end of the day during which people were
wandering off.  This made for a difficult situation with respect to
evening news, so we just did it with the few people that were left.

The other thing that happened was that the Law of Two Feet had some
interesting consequences.  One woman who was on the planning committee,
and who had agreed to the new format, was planning a comprehensive
presentation on something that a lot of people secretly found boring.
She had, some felt, unfairly put herself on the agenda, stating that
everyone at the conference SHOULD want to hear about her stuff.

Of course when it came time for her presentation she was alone.  She
came to me and asked me to do something about it.  I suggested she use
the mic to announce that her presentation was starting.  She declined
the opportunity.  She was angry until we talked together about the Law
of Two Feet and what it means when no one comes to your session.  She
reflected on this and together we talked about why people might have
chosen to go elsewhere.  She finally decided that the work she was doing
was just not what people were ready for.  She continued to work on that
material for many more years, and I know it had important implications
for policy making in Canada, but the general public was turned off by
it.

There are people in the world who do things that none of us would rather
know about.  Income security policy may well be one of those things.
But when it comes time to rely on income security programs, we are glad
someone thought to do it in the first place.  Just don't expect it to be
a big draw in Open Space.

---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com

(604) 947-9236






> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
kerry
> napuk
> Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 3:43 AM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: pre-spacing
>
> Tim
>
> I wouldn't muck about with the process for two reasons:
>
> 1. If you mix pre-posting with positing on the day, it will diminish
> the tension and excitement of self organising.
>
> 2. It will interfere with people sparking off one another, raising
> new burning issues in real time.
>
> Maybe you can tell the sponsor that it would undermine the process's
> effectiveness and interfere with the desired outcomes.
>
> You might want a co-facilitator to lower the pressure on you and help
> things move smoothly.  Otherwise, you will need more of everything
> and additional time for people to move from one place to another.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Cheers
>
> Kerry
> Open Futures
> Edinburgh
> --
>
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