New member introduction

[Kevin Cameron]

Hello Space Openers.  I am a new member of the list, and I tend to tire 
people on other lists I belong to with my questions, so be forewarned ;)

I am American, but currently living in Tokyo where I have just returned 
to after a graduate program Sweden about Sustainable Development (based 
on the Natural Step -in case anyone knows that, and many of you seem to 
be from Canada so I am guessing some do).  What left the greatest 
impression on me while I was in Sweden was actually the first two days 
in which we participated in a small (40 people) open space meeting with 
the goal of writing a 40 person report about what we, as a class, 
expected to get out of this program, and how we intended to go about 
getting it out.  I was amazed at how we produced such a high-quality 
paper with everyone's approval in only two days. I was also fascinated 
by the way that people who were interested in details such as the format 
naturally got together to decide that (the kind of stuff I, as a 
"dreamer" could care less about) and the dreamers like me got together 
to discuss the "bigger" issues, and there were groups of in-betweeners 
and bumblebees who brought us all together.

Anyway, it was amazing and fascinating.

Several months ago, as I was trying to figure out what is next after 
getting my degree, and I had fantasies of doing *something*, *anything* 
based on Open Space.

In the mean time, real-life happened, and now that I am back in Tokyo I 
have started working for a small sustainability consultancy, and just 
this weekend helped host a workshop that was planned long before I came. 
  Although everything went well, I couldn't help but imagine how much 
more productive an open space would have been.  Put aside how much more 
fun it would have been, it would have also given the participants a much 
greater feeling of ownership of the finished product, rather than us 
listening to them and then writing up the deliverables as *we* (the 
facilitators) thought was best.

This got me thinking again (more than ever) about open space.

And now my questions.


1) Aside from just "doing it" (I already have some plans in the works to 
start some open space fun either with or without my new company) What is 
the best way to go about getting a crash course in this?  I have only 
participated in the one two day meeting, but would love to experience 
more, bigger open spaces, hopefully learning more about it. My web 
searches have turned up one Open Space practitioner here in Japan, and I 
will certainly be contacting them, but I am also wondering about some 
"training courses" or rather, places where I can sit in on a real 
meeting, but also have a chance to chat open space talk with other 
facilitators.

2) I have been reading many of the blogs and websites of people I assume 
are on this list, so I am getting a vague idea, but what did you all do 
before you got into Open Space? What was your specialty? What is your 
background? What do you do now? How often do you facilitate meetings? 
What kind of clients? What other types of things do you do "on the job"?

Anyway, that is enough for today. I'm sure I will have more questions soon.

Cheers,
Kevin Cameron
http://www.bastish.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bastish/

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