Opening circle without seats

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear Csaba,
when you get into the vicinity of 300 participants and somewhere between 
75 and 100 issues and have only one day and want folks to get into their 
breakout sessions without too much delay you might do what HO always 
does, be the microphone stand...I tried that with the 2108 and we were 
all surprised how quickly it went.
Your guess at 75 issues (3 times X 25 breakoutspaces) might be a little 
on the low end. I always like to have a little reserve...which is easy 
with the balloons because participants just grab one and create their space.
The balloons need to be tested! Floating signs is nice because the signs 
turn and move a bit all the time and because they are sort of out of the 
way taking up a bit of the space above people. But we were surprised how 
large the balloons had to be and how many we needed to obtain a stable 
float. You need high-quality balloons that will hold the gas well...we 
found a supplier in Berlin and got a whole bunch of balloons and some 
large bottles of Helium gas and experimented, actually it was fun and it 
turned out that we learned a lot about this simple technology.
For the breakout sessions small balloons will do since they themselves 
carry the number of the breakout spaces...little cotton bags filled with 
sand will keep the balloons grounded.
We actually transported the Helium bottles from Berlin to Wuerzburg in a 
station waggon...its about a 7 hour drive.
I know you will enjoy the event!!
Greetings from Berlin
mmp

Csaba Lengyel schrieb:
> Dear Michael, Phelim, Peggy, Lisa and Barry,
> 
> Thank you very much for your valuable insights related to my issue. I have 
> to realise againn that OSLIST is such a great community!
> 
> Summing up the learnings:
> - we will try to use masking tape (if allowed) to mark at least the inner 
> and outer circle of the sitting area + marking corridors for entry into 
> the circle (if not allowed we'll simply use Barry's suggestion - using 
> some objects/volunteers to mark the outer and inner circle 
> and "instructing" the first few people arriving at the venue how we will 
> sit)
> - we'll consult the sponsors if there are people with specific mobility 
> issues and if yes, we arrange some facilities for them (Lisa, thank you 
> for this consideration).
> - for announcments we will use a microphone stand at the edge of the 
> circle (something like the Berlin WOSonOS setup) 
> 
> You also gave me sports hall specific ideas (to tell the truth I haven't 
> had the chance to see the venue - also have to admit I was a bit afraid, 
> once I had a bad experience with sports hall as a potential venue, it was 
> so unconvenient for setting up the OS environment, we have to change it), 
> they are also very useful: 
> - big issue is placement of the agenda wall and the memos (I hope there is 
> some solution for this - I will let you know :-)
> - the balloons for marking the breakout places and hanging the texts is a 
> great idea (thank you Michael - BTW, how did you get the helium tanks? :-)
>  
> Also I'm quite visual, so the photos, and videos were very useful for me 
> (Peggy, Phelim, Michael special thanks to you :), also the auditorium 
> setup of Phelim is brilliantly innovative - I would have probably run away 
> having looked at the place...)
> 
> The event will take place in 2 weeks time -  well... a bit close, but we 
> have just been asked to facilitate the event, so we have to live with it. 
> We won't see the place before next weekend (it's in a quite remote city), 
> but I will ask for good photos asap (now it's quite clear we might have a 
> lot of issues to solve...)
> 
> I hope we can manage it :)
> 
> Also one last question, taking into consideration that we will have 300 
> very active students for one full day of OS (let's say with 3 breakout 
> sessions), how many berakout places would you calculate? (My first guess 
> is 20-25.)
> 
> Many thanks again from a (finally) little cooler ans windy but still sunny 
> Budapest afternoon,
> 
> Csaba
> 
>  
> 
> *
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-- 
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
mmpanne at boscop.org
www.boscop.org


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