Fitting open space into a research conference

Sun Dec 2 18:32:05 PST 2007

Hi Dirk,

Interesting question. I did facilitate a 4-hour citizen's OS this 
summer during the Quebec Social Forum. Exactly what you mention 
happened: lots of competing talks. So a lot of people left after 2 
hours, and a lot of new people came in. My advice would be to have a 
lot of helpers around, that can explain to newcomers the OS process 
(how people created the agenda from what they care about and wanted 
to discuss, invite them to add topics - keep a separate part of the 
wall for that and maybe different shape and colour post-it - the 
principles and law). Thank God I had two wonderful OS experienced 
people with me to do that! We repeated our "story" quite a few times. 
And it worked. Some newcomers turned around and left, and others 
added new topics to the wall and held discussions. But it took a lot 
of energy to explain the process and communicate the spirit and value 
of staying to discuss in OS what mattered to them. So... lots of 
helpers are good. And a belief in the Law and holding space. One 
interesting thing is that one group from the first bunch had a 
proposal and report to make, but wanted to leave for a very 
well-knowned speaker. So they said they would send their 
report/proposal later. And they did. Over two months later, but they 
did, nevertheless. So here's to OS and responsibility!

As for the conferences, I had to go along with an "expert talk" 
before opening the space for a small group last fall. I could 
literaly feel the energy drain. Opening the space, I felt peole in 
the circle needed a lot of my energy to get to work. However, once I 
gave the go ahead to put up topics, everyone forgot about the very 
passive informative speaker, and OS did it's magic!

So if I were you, I would try to concentrate the speakers during the 
first part of the conference, and finish with OS, if possible. I've 
seen a lot on this list that if speakers have to speak, then it is 
best to have OS as a conclusion to the event. That being said, I 
don't have that much experience. And certainly none in a research 
conference. As for people not knowing about OS, the invitation (or 
summary in the program) will intrigue them. And once there, they will 
"get it" as Harrison always says :-)

Just my two cents here. Hope this helps. I'm sure others, more 
experienced, will have more to say.

Cheers everyone!

Esther

At 23:00 2007-12-01, you wrote:
>Hello everyone,
>
>I'm involved with a variety of research conferences and would like 
>to better understand how you can fit open space into a research 
>conference with a set time-grid and competing events. I searched the 
>OSList archives and the web but didn't find anything so I hope it is 
>ok to ask here. (And a pointer to a previous discussion would be a 
>perfect and much appreciated answer.)
>
>The research conferences I'm involved in typically have a fixed time 
>grid with two morning slots of 90min (30min coffee break in 
>between), lunch, and two afternoon slots of 90min (also 30min coffee 
>break in between). We have had open space at two such conferences 
>now, and in both cases it worked, but open space remained in 
>competition with "the regular program" i.e. set talks. We tried to 
>schedule the open space opening and ending to be without competing 
>event but that made them very early (late) i.e. at 8am and at 5pm. 
>The reason open space worked was certainly the excellent 
>facilitators we got, but also the enthusiasm of folks at these about 
>100 people conferences.
>
>I'm trying to bring this now to a much larger research conference, 
>which has > 1000 people attending. I only have control over "my 
>track" but that track has considerable influence. Open space is 
>viewed as an experiment as it has never been done before at this 
>conference. I get one day with no competing events (Monday) and then 
>three days of the main conference (Tue-Thu) with lots of competing 
>events. On Monday we can structure the day the way we want it, on 
>Tue-Thu we have the aforementioned 90min sessions with coffee breaks 
>and lunch in between. Typical problems I expect and wonder how to 
>deal with them:
>
>- plenty of folks who attend don't know much about open space
>- many folks will show up in the middle of the day or just 30min 
>late not knowing how it works expecting to participate
>- the competing events will make people come and go in a disruptive 
>way (but maybe that's just the law of the two feet :-)
>
>This year (2008), we have two specific additional challenges
>
>- we have no idea how many people will actually show up for the open 
>space part
>- space is at a premium, we may have to share a large hall so I 
>wonder whether that's disruptive as well
>
>Also, does it make sense to have open space afternoons (rather than 
>full days)? I'm thinking of reducing event competition by having 
>open space in the afternoon only on the three busy days Tuesday-Thursday.
>
>The event will take place in Oct 2008 and we'll try to be smart 
>about it until then to take some of the guesswork out of the 
>equation. I.e. early engagement like inquiring about expected open 
>space participation at registration time.
>
>Also, I'm a big fan of wikis, and intend to build up buzz and 
>pre-organization on a wiki leading up to the conference itself.
>
>Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
>Dirk
>
>
>PS: We will be looking for a facilitator. Obviously, this is a paid 
>job, though the research conference itself is not rich. Here a first blurp:
>
>Open Space Facilitation Engagement Oct 2008 Nashville TN
>
>For OOPSLA 2008, we are looking for an experienced open space 
>facilitator near Nashville, TN. Your engagement will be to 
>facilitate one full (and hopefully intense) day of open space + 
>several half days. Part of the job is explaining open space to those 
>who don't know it yet---which we expect to be many as this is the 
>first attempt of having open space at OOPSLA. OOPSLA is a >1000 
>people computer science (research) conference, but we expect a 
>significantly smaller number of people to participate in the open 
>space part only (current estimate is between 100 and 300). Location 
>is Nashville Convention Center, time and date is October 2008, with 
>initial and occasional consultations before then to prepare for the 
>meeting. For further questions, please contact Dirk Riehle, dirk at riehle.org
>
>--
>Phone: + 1 (650) 215 3459
>Web: http://www.riehle.org
>
>
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