[OSList] Half the conference participants doing open space?

[Harrison Owen]

Gee Sandy - You do have yourself in a tight spot. I'd go for the garden, if
there is one. Then - Does the Auditorium have a stage? If so, half the group
might be on the stage, and the remainder in the 1st rows facing. It is not
that the folks will have to be there very long. I did something like this
once, and it was rather amusing. Lots of hopping up and down sort of thing.
But as usual it worked out.

 

Harrison

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

 

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)

Camden, Maine 20854

 

Phone 301-365-2093

(summer)  207-763-3261

 

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Sandy Gee
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2012 4:49 AM
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Subject: [OSList] Half the conference participants doing open space?

 

Dear colleagues,

Me & Request for Help:

I've informally been around OST for over a decade and facilitated a number
of events. But this latest I've been asked to do is a challenge I'd
appreciate your thoughts/comments on....

 

The Challenge:

Its a one day psychotherapy conference with expected attendance of 100+
participants. But unfortunately the venue has already been booked and paid
for and the only large enough space for all is an auditorium with fixed
rows. The next largest room is a space that could hold a circle of a little
over 50 (and no room for 2nd concentric circle). They already want most of
the morning to be conventional presentations so the OST slot was to be for
the afternoon (maybe with the marketplace the last slot before lunch).

I'm thinking that a fixed row auditorium just won't work for OST.

 

My Idea:

So I'm wondering about having just half the conference do OST! (and the
other half sign up in advance to pre-offered workshops) - I've no idea if
this could work or if it would be too divisive. This group have always had a
very conventional set up before, they're a fairly straight/conventional
crowd and the organisers are anyway worried about introducing OST and how
it'll go down.

But maybe the more stuffy conventional ones could do the pre-scheduled (and
big name) workshops (and sign up in advance). And we've got a 50 max space
for OST participants.

 

Comments?

Has anyone ever tried something like this? 

What are your thoughts? 

Do you think it could work?

 

I'd SO appreciate any input!

Thanks

Sandy

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