[OSList] Open Space flip charts, signage and proceedings

[Diane Gibeault]

To create more spaces than initially planned for, if needed, here is another useful trick.  I learned this from Déborah Maarek and Michael Drouard, experienced OS facilitators from Belgium.

People already have some idea of the location of meeting sites (1 to 40 for eg.) thanks to instructions or a one page floor plan in their kit and posted on walls at key areas. If additional meeting spaces are needed, writing new post-its with the times and location 1-b,   2-b,  3-b  etc makes it easy to find since everyone already knows where location nu. 1 is, etc. You can double the number of meeting spaces and even triple them - depending on the size of the rooms and the proximity of the original numbers. Locating them only requires one verbal instruction from the facilitator when s/he is alerted that this system is being started by the OS support team at the post-it grid.

Another consideration for balloons is the increasing sensitivity to allergens. Some people develop severe reactions (such as breathing difficulties and others) when exposed to the material of balloons. Hospitals have replaced the latex gloves with another material because of the frequency of this type of reaction. If you really want balloons, it would be important  in the registration form to specify that there may be balloons and ask if participants have such allergies. A general question about special needs and allergies is not sufficient because many will not expect necessarily to see  balloons and may think the question is as usual, for food allergies or scents. Just add balloons in the allergy examples.

This alternative to identify meeting spots may have been mentioned but just in case:  bright light colour A4 cards with large numbers on them are posted to walls. For groups in the middle of the room, the card is posted on the group's flip charts/paper boards. If there are more groups than flip charts, the floor plan comes in handy as well as other suggestions that have already been listed in previous messages. 

Hope this is useful,

Diane

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