Advice on running Open Space with 250-300 people

aslak hellesoy aslak.hellesoy at gmail.com
Fri Jan 4 22:31:11 PST 2008


On Jan 5, 2008 12:08 AM, kerry napuk <k at napuk.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Alask
>

It's Aslak

> One wonderful thing about Open Space and the OSLIST is to hear
> different views without feeling comments are personal.
>

Thanks for sharing that. I incorrectly assumed in my previous email
that you were suggesting we did something "wrong". Sorry about that.

> I assume people came because the invitation and theme interested them.
> If so, they probably wanted to discuss issues of direct interest.
> Otherwise, they might as well attend a lecture and sit in rows theatre
> style, not circles.
>
> The difference between LGPs or LGIs is that all are bottom up,
> participative processes,  reversing conventional and deadly top down
> approaches of control freaks.  It's not that "messages from the top"
> are inherently bad but the fact that most organisations fail to allow
> anything else.
>

I have experienced the same. When I introduced OS in my own
organisation (200 people) a year ago there was lots of scepticism, but
in retrospect people enjoy it and practice it frequently now.

> I am glad your event was successful, but hearing "experts" presenting
> rapid fire one to ten minute presentations for a whole morning would
> have driven me batty.
>

I don't know where you got the impression that the people giving
lighting talks are so-called experts. I've been at several different
events that use Lighting Talks, and what is common for the vast
majority of the speakers is the exact opposite. They are not experts,
don't claim to be it and are not regarded as such by the audience. The
people giving LTs are usually completely unknown in their community.
They just have a story to tell that they think is valuable to others.
The LT format lowers the barrier for unexperienced speakers to tell
their story. It's not a lecture.

LTs are probably unsuitable for fully converted orthodox OS
practitioners, but that's not the audience most people are targeting
with an event. Our audience was mostly new to both LT and OS and from
what I can tell the many LTs had a positive effect on the OS sessions.
I encourage you to attend a pecha kucha night (look it up) near where
you live to learn more about it.

Cheers,
Aslak

> Regards
>
> Kerry
>
>
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