Advice on running Open Space with 250-300 people

[Gerard Muller]

Hello Asiak,

I'd suggest the following:

1.	Create 3 sessions of 60 minutes each, no need to plan the breaks, 
participants will do this themselves - only the hotel needs
   	to understand they need to be flexible and make sure whatever is 
needed is available when people take a break;

2.	The number of topics is as many as participants want to post. So do 
not create a limited number of slots. In my experience 250
	people tend to come up with between 40 and 70 issues (the bigger the 
group, the more likely someone else has posted the topic
	you had in mind).  I expand the agenda wall as more topics come up.

3.	Just the time needed to read out the topic and say their name. No 
long explanations.
	With 250-300 participants, the whole opening (opening statement, 
introducing OS, making the agenda) typically takes some
	45 minutes.

4.	Do not split up the topic into two, at least not for logistical 
reasons - only if you have two key issues which are clearlily not
	connected. On the other hand, why not split up the time between your 
10 minute talks and open space sessions in another way ?
	Last year, during WikiSym, we had a bit of the same issue, and decided 
to have a joint opening session, creating the agenda for
	the Open Space. After that, talks took place in one large room, and OS 
sessions in another large room, allowing participants to
	move from one part of the conference to the other, following their 
noses .... This created much more space for all to have the
	conversations (or presentations) they wanted to have
.

Finally, I feel that creating the topics is not time taken deducted 
from time to discuss. It often feels more like creating a joint picture
of what is essential as seen from the different perspectives, and I 
find often when the agenda is done, the agenda wall shows a diagnosis
of where the group is at as related to the topic - both in terms of the 
important topics put on the agenda, as well as those who one might
expect which have not been put there.

Have fun  !!!!!

Mange hilsner




Gerard Muller
Open Space Institute Denmark
Phone: (+45) 21269621					Skype: openspace1
Mail: gm at openspace.dk


On Nov 18, 2007, at 4:24 PM, 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!
>
> *
> *
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