[OSList] two locations at once?

[Jeff Aitken]

Hi Jen,

Thanks for putting this out to the list. I'm sure you will get lots of
warm appreciations and suggestions.

Let me dive right in, and I look forward to the ideas of others. I've
facilitated many short OST events of 2-4 hours, which are on the very
short end of the OST spectrum as you know.

I am going to suggest that the connections between the events take
place after the event and not during. My reasoning is that the event
is fairly short in duration, and it will be most useful to support the
people in the room to connect with one another in person, rather than
try to also include others offsite.

If I can offer ideas about the agenda design, it would be to use the
time available to maximize the open space opportunity, especially for
several hundred people.

Get right to work, lengthen the session times, and have a more
leisurely closing. For example you might start with a short welcome
and agenda creation at 12:30, have a 60 minute session start at 1:15
and another 60 minute session at 2:15 pm. Then at 3:15 you would have
45 minutes for closure. (Unless you are able to stretch the length of
the event even more...)

This would allow a big group of people a bit more time to move from
session to session and to gather again for closing. Especially in open
space, inviting a lot of people to move from place to place requires
some time, and can't be very precise. The appetizers could be
available for noshing during the opening and the sessions, hopefully
in the central space.

Another suggestion is to use the closing time for people to share
their experiences face to face, rather than reading session notes and
then having a short feedback period. Because you are inviting a "we"
culture into being, each opportunity for people to experience the "we"
that they are will help to plant and nurture that seed. The ideas that
are captured on flip charts can be transcribed and shared afterward
online among all participants, and you can design a way for
interaction and followup.

The actual design of the closing I suggest would involve people in
shared reflection hearing one another's voices, tho I won't offer more
specific ideas right now.

Thanks again for sharing and being on the list... looking forward to
the ongoing conversation about this work.

Jeff
San Francisco



On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 4:54 PM, Jen Mein <jen at umn.edu> wrote:
> Greetings!
>
> I am an Art of Hosting practitioners at the University of Minnesota and I am
> currently designing a large half-day Open Space event. The University of
> Minnesota's main campus is in Minneapolis-St.Paul and we have 4 other
> campuses in our system throughout the state. For this event, there is a
> desire to have our campus in Duluth, MN host an OS at the same time and
> connect with our participants in the Twin Cities. We expect to have 50-75
> people in Duluth and 600+ in the Twin Cities. I think we can make it happen
> technically, but I could use some advice about the design to determine what
> is reasonable for interaction between the two locations.
>
>
> Does anyone have experience running simultaneous Open Spaces? Any best
> practices or tips?
>
>
> Thanks! More of the context and tentitive plan is below.
>
>
> - Jen Mein
>
>
>
> Bringing together members of the University of Minnesota Information
> Technology Community to connect and engage in the building of a “we”
> culture.
>
> Goals:
>
> Kick off the “we” culture. (i.e., help move the IT community past an
> “us/them” and into a “we”)
> Provide an opportunity for people across the University system to connect
> with others with shared interests.
> Create an environment that is fun and informal and celebrates community.
>
>
> Proposed Flow:
> Time        Minutes Topic
> 12:30 30 Appetizers, Meet & Greet
> 1:00 45 Opening - Creating the agenda
> 1:45 55 Self-Organized Discussions - Round 1
> 2:40 45 Self-Organized Discussions - Round 2
> 3:25 10 Walkabout - Read discussion notes posted on flip charts
> 3:35 10 Feedback in large group
> 3:45 15 Announcements and official thanks
> 4:00 -- End of Session
>
> With 400-600 participants; we would likely have 50-60 discussions happening
> over the two rounds. Thus, we will need to identify 25-30 breakout spaces
> within and around the large group meeting spaces.
>
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