Just opened space for 550 at the Kellogg Food and Society Conference

[Chris Corrigan]

Hi colleagues:  A report from the field...


I just opened space here for 550 people at the Food and Society Conference.
This was the biggest OST gathering I have ever facilitated, and it's huge in
importance as well.  There must have been close to 100 sessions proposed for
today and I'm just gathering my energy for a long day and night ahead of
compiling the proceedings document.

I'm a stranger to the good food movement in the United States, and so it's
hard for me to know what the agenda looks like, but like all Open Space
events I trust that it is what is needed right now.  Our organizing question
was: "If you take the margins and social justice seriously, what are the
bold conversations you need to have to amplify and accelerate the impact of
good food."  I stepped into the circle following a powerful talk on
structural racism in the food system given by today's provocateur, Maya
Wiley from the Center for Social
Inclusion<http://www.centerforsocialinclusion.org/struct_racism.html>.
She dropped a great challenge into the centre of the circle, speaking about
the radical nature of this room full of people.  People were ready to get to
work.  I have rarely seen a flood to the centre of the room as I just
experienced.  It's kind of overwhelming.

So the participants are in a break now, and soon enough the remainder of the
day will be self-organized.  Learning a lot about working with great
friends, all of whom had my back this morning and had the logistics nailed
down pretty well.  We had to prepare 140 breakout spaces, in a conference
facility <http://www.wildhorsepassresort.com/> that is over the top
luxurious and is pretty concerned about the aesthetics of randomly places
pods of chairs.  Within these constraints, the conference staff have been
great and the hosting team rocks.  It's impossible to do one's best work
alone.

You can follow along with the gathering at the Food and
Society<http://www.foodandsociety2008.org/Default.aspx?tabid=56&ItemID=5000456&NID=5010456>website.

Cheers,


Chris


-- 
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Facilitation - Training - Process Design
Open Space Technology

Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com

Principal, Harvest Moon Consultants, Ltd.
http://www.harvestmoonconsultants.com

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