Advice on running Open Space with 250-300 people

[Michael M Pannwitz]

> Is 3 times 45 minutes topics (and 15 min break) ok?

3 sessions give enough choice, I would go for that
Make 3 beginning times that are 60 minutes apart, breaks are 
selforganized...this means you might have a session begin each at
2:30, 3:30 and 4:30 (do not say 2:30 until 3:30 because the time a group 
will take will vary, some groups might stick together all of the 3 
hours, some are finished in 20 minutes)

> * How many topics should we strive to create?

Make sure its the group creating the issues, not you. The number of 
issues is calculated by the multiplying beginning times with break out 
spaces. So if you have 3 beginning times on the first day and and 14 
break out spaces there is enough room for 42 issues. People might have 
more issues and for that I have postits that just give the beginning 
times and people have to see where they will meet (post new postits when 
all the 42, to stay in this example, are taken)

> * How long should each participant get to suggest a topic?

You can make a contribution to shortening the time when you as 
facilitator demonstrate how issues are posted: You go to the center, 
kneel down, right down the issue, walk up to the mike and announce it 
crisp and short. You might also suggest that it is a good idea for 
people to write down their issues before announcing it (rather than the 
other way round).
When we had 232 issues with the os with 2108 participants there were 8 
seconds per participant.
With small os events such as yours you dont have to limit the time.
If you get the impression you are cramped, you yourself might want to 
hold the microphone and have people walk up to it, if they take very 
long intervene appropriately (I usually leave the circle and have the 
participants walk up to a mike sitting on a microphone holder...it works 
quite well)

> Should we split up the introduction/topic suggestion in two big groups?

No, if you mean to split up the 250 people into two groups.
Dont worry too much about the group taking too much time with announcing 
their issues...if all stay in one group, there will be minimal doubling 
of issues...if you have 2 groups lots of issues will double.

It seems that you will have two seperate os events since you have all 
those lightening talks each morning...you might find lots of people 
skipping the lightening talks on the second day because they have gotten 
into the open space mood. It might be a lot better to have all the 
lightening talks (oh, how I abhor them! why do we think that people need 
to be lit? what kind of concept of human nature do we transport with 
such a notion?)bunched into one morning and have a half day and a whole 
day of os in one continuum with all the issues posted at the beginning 
both for the afternoon and the next day (with added opportunities for 
more issues during evening news and morning announcements).

Hope you have a great time and let us know how it went!
And take a look at the world map
> http://www.openspaceworldmap.org/

there are 2 colleagues listed there, one in Oslo
and, of course, you are invited to include yourself, too!

Greetings from Berlin
mmp


aslak hellesoy wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm one of the organisers of a conference for agile software
> development in Norway (http://smidig.no/smidig2007/talks).
> It's two days and both days will have lots of 10 minute talks before
> lunch (lightning talks) and OST after lunch.
> We're expecting 250-300 people to attend, and I'm starting to get a
> little overwhelmed about the OST sessions.
> I have attended several smaller Open Space meetings, but never this
> big, so I was hoping someone with experience of big OST meetings can
> give some advice:
> 
> * Is 3 times 45 minutes topics (and 15 min break) ok?
> * How many topics should we strive to create?
> * How long should each participant get to suggest a topic?
> * Should we split up the introduction/topic suggestion in two big groups?
> 
> My main worry is that with a big group like this it will be
> challenging to create enough topics (and do it within a reasonable
> time) so that people can put good use of the three hours they have
> each day. I've read that OST has been used on much larger groups, but
> I'm a little puzzled about the logistics.
> 
> Any help appreciated!
> 
> *
> *
> ==========================================================
> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> ------------------------------
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
> view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
> 
> To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
> http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
> 

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist