Room Set-Up Questions

[Kathleen Osta]

Hi there,

I'm doing a 4-hour Open Space session for 300+ people in a hotel 
ballroom that is 80 feet x 150 feet. Using a to-scale room diagram, it 
looks like I may have to have 4 concentric circles because I plan to 
have several aisles, e.g., at least 7. I've never had that may 
concentric circles and wanted to know if that's workable.

I also plan to have about 21 lap tops in the News Room in one corner of 
the room, which will chew into small group space around the perimeter 
of the room.

Since I won't have quite enough space around the perimeter of the room 
for all 18 small groups, about how many can I put in the middle of the 
room (once the space is cleared because people have taken their chairs 
with them)?

Experience input requested, please. Thanks.

Kathleen Osta


Kathleen S. Osta
Vital Clarity
15 Hunters Way
Asheville, NC 28804
828-253-8343 office
828-231-5565 cell
828-253-8284 fax
www.vitalclarity.com

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>From  Thu Apr  6 17:50:30 2006
Message-Id: <THU.6.APR.2006.175030.0400.>
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 17:50:30 -0400
Reply-To: hhowen at verizon.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
Organization: HH Owen and Co.
Subject: Re: Room Set-Up Questions
In-Reply-To: <683bdb4bd80afa34e4efa25c51ab3854 at vitalclarity.com>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

You have your work cut out for you! Four circles are fine -- just as long as
you leave enough room in the center so that folks can move about when they
come up to post issues. My rule of thumb is MORE SPACE! You might save a
little bit with fewer laptops -- for a group that size (300) my number would
be 15, maybe even 10. However, you are cramming a great deal in a small
time/space slot. So you may need the additional ones to deal with the
traffic. If it were me, I would be looking around for some additional space
-- anywhere. In the coffee shop, out of doors, down at the corner bar. The
problem with using just the "big room" is that you will have a lot of chair
shifting, noise, confusion and general hubbub. It will probably be OK -- but
I would still be on the lookout for some more space. Even a little bit.

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 Kathleen
Osta
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 3:31 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Room Set-Up Questions

Hi there,

I'm doing a 4-hour Open Space session for 300+ people in a hotel 
ballroom that is 80 feet x 150 feet. Using a to-scale room diagram, it 
looks like I may have to have 4 concentric circles because I plan to 
have several aisles, e.g., at least 7. I've never had that may 
concentric circles and wanted to know if that's workable.

I also plan to have about 21 lap tops in the News Room in one corner of 
the room, which will chew into small group space around the perimeter 
of the room.

Since I won't have quite enough space around the perimeter of the room 
for all 18 small groups, about how many can I put in the middle of the 
room (once the space is cleared because people have taken their chairs 
with them)?

Experience input requested, please. Thanks.

Kathleen Osta


Kathleen S. Osta
Vital Clarity
15 Hunters Way
Asheville, NC 28804
828-253-8343 office
828-231-5565 cell
828-253-8284 fax
www.vitalclarity.com

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*
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------------------------------
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http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

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