OS as post-conference session

[Michelle Cooper]

Hi Esther
I completely agree with you - people often spend days just taking in
information and not being able to process. The diversity of people makes it
perfect for OST. 
Donna Clark, Rachel Assuncao and I are facilitating a full post conference
OST session following the National Health WOrk and Wellness Conference in
October in Toronto (www.healthworkandwellness.com)  as an opportunity for
delegates to make meaning of the many sessions they attend in the two main
conference days. the theme is Navigating the Chaos: Creating Strategies for
Leading a Mentally Healthy Workplace. We process facilitated a half day
workshop last October in Vancouver, and participants in our session were
extremely appreciative of the opportunity to actually interact since even
the lunch hours were filled with somebody talking at you.
We proposed the OST to the organizers last year and they accepted our
abstract.
 
The only time it has not worked well for me is having the OST inserted in
the midst of a conference as a concurrent session...in competition with the
Minister of Health making an announcement...so the law of two feet was in
play and the delegates all went to hear about what was next in health care.
 
So, I suggest a post conference format. Typically participants say the OST
is the best part of the conference.
 
Go for it and good luck.
Michelle
 

  _____  

From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Communications Esther Matte
Sent: June 29, 2007 02:09 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: OS as post-conference session


Hi everyone,

At the end of August, there will be, in Montreal, a "Forum social québécois"
- like the Social Forums that happened in Bresil and around the world in the
last few years, but with a focus on Quebec society. They did their
programming in a very open manner, people registering sessions they wanted
to hold. Too bad I didn't find out about this thing earlier, as I would have
proposed an OST format for the whole thing! 

So, I'm playing with the idea of proposing an OST session for the end of the
event. My goal is to have some of these people experience OST because I
think it could be a very useful tool for the participating organizations.
What would be great is that if any of them are then interested in exploring
OST further, they could participate to our OSONOS in French, in September.

I'm thinking of a 4-hour session, with a theme like "What have we learned at
this Forum and how will we use it?" These events can be very stimulating and
inspiring, leaving people full of energy, ideas and good intentions.
However, once back to the "real life", the day-to-day stuff tends to
overtake calendars and it's ofen very difficult to follow-up on the original
good intentions. So an OST post-conference session could give people space,
a time and a place, to focus on which learnings are most important to them,
discuss how they can use it, network and start planning what they will do
next. 

However, I see a potential problem: there will be lots of people coming from
all kinds of sectors and backgrounds, some quite formal, like unions, some
quite informal, like citizens groups. And there are many "tracks" to the
Forum, like Human Rights, Environment,  Public Services, Work, Social
Economy, etc. So there will really be no common basis, no unique focus. 

Maybe a theme like "what more do we want to learn and share and teach and
discover with each other before we all go our separate ways‘ could work
better. Or "what next", so that the people in one "track" might  decide, in
their sessions, to come together to my OS session to plan the next steps. 

I have a feeling it's a good idea, but not sure how to work it out. Any
experiences, thoughts, warnings? I will greatly appreciate any comment.

I still haven't approached anyone with my idea. Just playing with it for
now. I need to see this happening clearly in my head first :-)

Thanks a million! * *
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