Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia

Sat Apr 1 09:25:20 PST 2006

Elwin -- great to see you back! And the Serbia tale is marvelous, made even
more so by the fact that I was privileged to open some space in the part of
the world several years ago, and the comments from my participants were
almost identical. It is always strange and wonderful to hear people marvel
at their own capacities -- especially those who have spent a lifetime in
situations where they had been told, day in and day out, that deviant action
and thinking could be hazardous to your health. And actually, even getting
together to think about such revolutionary stuff was not advisable. The
resilient powers of the human spirit never ceases to amaze! And it is such a
privilege to provide a little space in which the spirit may grow. 

We get paid for this!??!!

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com 
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Elwin and
Joan
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 11:44 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia

I just completed an Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia for the purpose of
establishing a sustainable network/organization to promote Heritage
Festivals and Tourism. The sponsor was a USAID Development Project.

It was a classic 2 1/2 day event with 100+ participants. 

Below are the Open Space Evaluations (requested by the Project
Director) from the Project's two professional trainers (both beautiful
young women) who interpreted and otherwise assisted me throughout.

Elwin Guild
Future Development International
Baltimore

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>From the very beginning of the first day, I was suprised and impressed
with the new and fresh approach to holding conferences and seminars
(many of which I attended in the past and died of boredom). Also, my
initial scepticism, which was apparent in the beginning both to my
colleague Sandra and the facilitator, slowly started to melt away after
I saw how people became inspired and enthusiastic (though a little
confused, perhaps) to embrace this new methodology and make the most
out of the freedom that was suddenly handed to them. Perhaps the most
interesting illustration of how my reservation over how this event was
going to turn out was refuted by the instance on the first day when the
first person to stand up and post the name of the workshop to be held
was a woman, and that soon after, 90% of the people present rushed to
do same (exactly to the word as Elwin had predicted earlier).

Over the following two days, I was again impressed and surprised by the
number of people showing up at 9:00am each morning and staying until
late at night discussing in informal groups issues of interest to them.
I kept trying to warn Elwin that most of the people wouldn't show up
the next day, and that on the last day there would probably not be more
than 10 people for the closing of the conference. But again, I was
wrong - I believe that some 80% of the people who initially showed up
came for the closing (and some of them came to me earlier to say that
they wouldn't be able to make it, as they had to travel long distances
and would have to leave earlier). Their closing words were, once again,
more positive that I could have anticipated.

On the other hand, I am not sure exactly how the results of this great
event can adequately be recorded (and what are they, in the most
concrete sense, other than truly great exchange of ideas, meeting and
coming together of people with similar problems who will now have the
chance contact each other in the coming period... Which is perhaps more
than enough). I understand the report was supposed to serve this
purpose , but looking through them, I believe there could have been a
better way to put the actual results together - what that would be, and
how it could have been implemented, I don't really know. Furthermore, I
am also not sure how much follow up action will there be in the
foreseeable future.
But then again, I'm not a visionary.

If you have any further questions, or if I have left anything out, let
me know.

Cheers,
Darja

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Here's my impression about the event:
First of all I was surprised with participants' reaction to the fact
that there was no agenda. I would expect that after Elvin announced it,
everybody would start looking around feeling very uncomfortable, but
no, they ran to the agenda wall as soon as he finished talking.
Complete surprise for me!
Second surprise was the fact that there were people still working at
10PM on both days. Normally everybody start feeling tired right after
lunch.
The atmosphere was great during the entire event. They organized their
own party at the end of day 2 - this NEVER happened before!
I wrote down some of the comments participants maid on the last morning
at the closing session:
"You brought us all here to teach us fishing, not to give us fish and
that's why I liked it so much!"
"I am impressed with this method and I think this is the best, if not
the only way to address this much issues with this much people"
"This concept surprised me, but so did our reaction. I never attend
seminars, conferences, trainings and when I realized at some point that
there will be 56 meetings I wanted to run away, but something kept me
going. I had a great time during entire event. I felt very pleasant and
I carry lots of positive emotions from this conference." 
"This made me realize that I am not the only one having problems and
that there are solutions for all of us out there".
One of the hotel staff asked to keep the sign with one of the
principals "What ever happens is the only thing that can happen" and
"The law of two feet".

I hope this will do!
Sandra 

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