WOSonOS 2008, San Francisco...in...progress...

[Lisa Heft]

Hello, my lovely friends and colleagues -

Thank you so much for
your warm support - we feel you with us in spirit, indeed.

Monday and Tuesday we had a fabulous Open Space Learning Workshop with
40+ interesting, interested and diversely experienced colleagues from
around the world.  Spark (from Korea) gave us a gift -
little...tiny...baby...two feet - a pin to wear as graduates of this
particular class.  Raffi translated for our Russian colleagues and
boy he must be thirsty. That is hard work.  Somebody get him a glass
of water...or what was I thinking? vodka. There was a whole little
production project so that by the end of class everyone received a cd copy
of the Open Space Idea Book.  I must remember to invite these folks
to my home whenever I need a whole little elves' workshop!  We
pondered the true meaning of invitation, played concepts of Open Space
back to each other in silence, movement and metaphor, walked out to see
the Golden Gate Bridge, took naps... sounds like learning to me...

Tuesday evening was the Author Evening with Harrison.  100+
people in a lovely room by the San Francisco Marina - sun setting,
sailboats rocking, old friends and new, the launch of the Third Edition of
Open Space Technology: A User's Guide, nibbles, wine, and okay so some
hugging and laughter as well.

Tonight is our opening casual
reception - the same lovely room, some food, and friends. No activity
designed - just a lovely place to meet and share stories, introduce new
and old friends, look at the sunset, drink some wine or juice and enjoy
each other.

Tomorrow the conference day opens.  This will
be in a lovely room with a very large window and a view of the Golden Gate
Bridge to continue giving us a sense of place.  Space opens, we jump
in, and off we go.  

We will have...

- A Global
Village Marketplace - where you bring bit of art or fabric or ? from your
village or that you made and sell it to raise funds for your travel
expenses or the Access Queen Project (this is how we share resources to
help 'Askers' get to our WOSonOSs) 

- Silent Auction - where
you hope to be the highest bidder on some lovely item so you can take it
home and the money goes to ...yes...the Access Queen Project

-
a Photo Corner so we can get a photo of everyone present - we will try to
put this in our Book of Proceedings

- A Things to Do and See
wall where people will be posting colorful posters of ideas for spending
time and enjoying the San Francisco Bay Area

- Gently used
books on facilitation - for those who do not have access to books - to
take home with them

- A library of Open Space  resources
(including Raffi's new book)

- Lovely pinwalls and a cool
suitcase that holds facilitator items to show to all - from our friends at
Neuland

- Compostable dining items, recycling, local merchant
food, and an electronic Book of Proceedings to keep an eye on our impact
on the planet (our caterer tells us that on occasion, the compostable
dinner ware - forks for example - can change shape a bit during dinner -
but they are still perfectly useful for eating... hmmm...that will be
fun....

- A quiet room...ahhh....

- A Thursday
evening dinner and celebration with music, perhaps a little performance or
dancing will break out..and..perhaps some lovely "hippie"
costumes...as people tease us Californians all the time about being
'hippies' we said 'hey, bring it on! come dressed as hippies and show us
what you mean!' - I know I have my costume all picked out...peace and
love, baby...

- International Suitcase Cuisine - where everyone
brings some lovely food or drink from their country, neighborhood or
kitchen to add to our Thursday dinner (I envision everything from pickled
herring to Haitian rum to local organic chocolates -- okay not all
together, I mean one after the other)...

- Home stays and
shared rooms and hostel beds found, ride shares matched, buddies to meet
to navigate in a new land, tips for new travelers, more Russian
translation, sharing language and culture and more...our Access Queen
Project of matching people who can give to people who need is helping a
record number of wonderful people to join us this year and enrich us with
their diverse knowledge and experience...

- Invitation offered
from potential country hosts for the 2009 and 2010 WOSonOS - as we move
back and forth across the waters to share this event around the
world...

- ...and a group of fabulous Citizen journalist /
bloggers who will send out more news to you, dear readers...as we go...

A few weeks afterwards, after your dear Host Team can rest a bit,
we will be posting our Book of Proceedings for you all to enjoy, plus -
another tradition of Access Queen behind the scenes - we will be sending a
list of ideas, resources and checklists to our 2009 WOSonOS hosts -
lessons learned from several years of past WOSonOS hosts to future ones to
help them in their planning for this lovely world event.

I am
about to swim back in to the details of registration and preparation and
also maybe a lovely walk in sunny breezy San Francisco before our
reception tonight.

But I wanted to give you a taste, my friends
who cannot be with us in person.  

We are thinking of you
as we jump into this nourishing mix of fascinating people with stretchy
thinking and mind-expanding experience.   If we don't see you
this week...we are saving our pennies for 2009 to see you....wherever in
the world that will be. And that will be revealed...very soon after our
conference....

And I bow to my fabulous, creative and
hard-working Host Team:

Jeff Aitken
Kelly Feder
Ainsley Nies
Nettie Pardue
Erica Peng
Heidi Nobantu
Saul
Bob Sullens

...Most of whom have been together
working on this for a year (we celebrated our year anniversary on this
project with ice cream and cake).  We are SO excited that this is
happening now...We are delighted and honored to receive our colleagues
here in San Francisco at WOSonOS 2008.

More soon....

Lisa
On behalf of the WOSonOS Host Team

___________________________
L i s a    H e f t
Consultant,
Facilitator, Educator
O p e n i n g  S p a c e
lisaheft at openingspace.net
www.openingspace.net 


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