Advice on running Open Space with 250-300 people

[Harrison Owen]

Sounds like you are getting some real good advice (what else on OSLIST?!)
Three things occur to me -- 

1) I find working with larger groups is actually easier than small ones.
Part of that is that there is a sufficient crowd that people don't feel
inclined to conversations during the opening. But as Michael points out, 250
people is rather on the small end of things. 

2) When I invite people to announce their issues, I make it very clear that
there are to be no speeches. Just state your issue, your name -- and move
on. You don't have to sound like a drill sergeant, a smile will help, and
I've never had any objections. Occasionally people do get carried away, but
having said No Speeches at the start, I have no problem reiterating the
point (nicely) if I see a speech developing. 

3) I think it is really important that there be NO limit on the number of
issues raised. A promise I always make in the invitation (or suggest that
the sponsor makes) is that EVERY ISSUE OF CONCERN to anybody will be on the
table. That can get a little interesting. In the OS that Michael refers to
(2108 participants) we had figured that there might be 175 issues raised --
but when the total was heading to 200 we had to move a little quickly to add
spaces. But we did, and everything worked. The final total was, as Michael
said, something like 236. And as near as I can tell all sessions met and
made a report. Number (of people or issues) need never be a problem.  Good
luck! Don't forget to breath. And above all, Have fun!

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 aslak
hellesoy
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 10:25 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Advice on running Open Space with 250-300 people

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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