[OSList] Open Space flip charts, signage and proceedings

[Daniel Mezick]

On 9/29 in Boston, we (Agile Boston) are producing an event called Agile 
Day 2011 Boston. We have about 250 people coming.

See http://newtechusa.net/user-groups/ma/agileday2011/

The event includes an Open Space in the afternoon. We are planning full 
proceedings. The proceedings are to be delivered in PDF format not later 
than 48 hours after the event.

We are taking a shot at experimenting with some small improvements that 
may prove useful for OST practitioners.

Here is the list of things we are trying:

1. Helium Balloons for Session Location Signage. We are using helium 
balloons as the session-meeting-space signage. The balloons are marked 
A,B,C,D etc and then tied to chairs or easels. The letters and colors 
make it simple to use expansive convention spaces (no walls or corners)  
for OST and point people to session spots from very far away. "See that 
green balloon marked G way over yonder? That's your session!" Etc. 
Chairs can get moved around and the spot for meeting is still clearly 
marked and visible from far away. That's the idea anyway !

2. Yardsticks on Flipcharts. We know this one works. This technique  
originated with the Agile Boston group, which has done 6 Open Spaces so 
far. The technique allows the use of use flip charts in a session 
without the need for an easel. The flip chart goes on a chair instead. 
The technique goes like this:

a. Get a flip chart, a yardstick, and some duct tape

b. Affix yardstick to back of flip chart with duct tape, to make a 
backbone for the flip chart. Let 1/2 inch of yardstick protrude at 
bottom. This creates a little foot or anchor.

c. Now place flip chart on  chair. Back of chair supports yardstick, 
yardstick supports flip-chart. The yardstick makes the flip chart rigid. 
The 1/2 inch foot cushes into the chair seat cushion and keeps the 
flip-chart upright and easy to write on when seated.


3. Searchable PDF Proceedings.
We are producing a high-quality, searchable, transcribed PDF of the Open 
Space proceedings. At least 100 pages worth. Up to this point few if any 
Open Spaces in Agile conferences are producing any proceedings. Those 
that are, are not producing a searchable file. Rather, the proceedings 
contain copies of proceedings forms, or scanned images.  We are aiming 
at producing a searchable PDF by using a transcription service to 
convert scanned images to text to render said text searchable in a 
delivered PDF.

Steps

a. At the event and before, make it very plain that conveners are 
expected to make free-hand, paper-form-based proceedings happen. Provide 
forms and pens but do not force anything further per se

b. When a convened session is over, conveners are expected to go to 
Newsroom with freehand forms filled out, to hand over.

c. Volunteers rush to meet and serve convener, bench-checking the 
handwritten form, photographing any artifacts generated on flip-charts, 
and finally, sending the convener on his or her way thereafter.

d. Copy of proceedings-form is made, gets posted immediately in Breaking 
News. Original gets scanned, sent to transcribers by email and filed. 
Said transcribers send back RTF file. RTF file is inserted into PDF and 
is now searchable etc. JPG artifacts are added as needed per session.

e. The completed searchable PDF is posted on a public share,  free to 
anyone in the world who has the link.

f. Expected latency is no more than 48 hours per 200 pages of 
proceedings generated

We expect 20 sessions per round over 3 rounds of 50 minutes each in this 
afternoon event. We expect 230++  people so we expect 60 or 70 sessions 
to document.

We plan to post a full experience report here after the event, to let 
you know how it goes, what we learned etc. We welcome and strongly 
encourage suggestions, historical information about similar stuff people 
have tried, specific guidance and so on. The event is in one week.

Dan

-- 
Daniel Mezick, President
New Technology Solutions Inc.
(203) 915 7248 (cell)
AgileDay2011 Sept 29! <http://newtechusa.net/user-groups/ma/agileday2011/>

Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>, Blog 
<http://newtechusa.net/blog/>, Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>,
Team Training <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/>, 
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