[OSList] Half the conference participants doing open space?

Lisa Heft lisaheft at openingspace.net
Fri May 25 17:58:54 PDT 2012


Hi, Sandy -

I would say it is preferable to have part of the system in a room that  
lets them do their work efficiently (in Open Space) rather than all of  
the people in a room that does not support conversation and mixing  
around much. Besides - you want this to be a good rich example of Open  
Space - these clients are hesitant so you want to show them how it  
really looks / how it really can be.

Just be sure to work with the client on the wording (text) in the  
program. I have had conference clients say 'open space' in the program  
and people think that is an open space on the agenda in other words  
time to go shopping. Which of course they can. But then they tend to  
get upset when they hear that others have done productive work during  
that time and they did not know about it from the program  
information.  You do not have to talk about process at all in the  
program text - most people care about content and relationship - so it  
is great do describe what people will be working on together - not too  
much about how. And name it something useful for people to understand  
what it is. Remember that 'open space' is our inside language.

I have done this sort of thing before - with a partial group. What I  
do NOT like to do is a parallel stream in a conference with people  
coming and going - very hard to breathe into that space and have a  
sense of any container.
Best if people come at the start and stay for the duration.

When I have done this before - the other conference-goers sometimes  
get upset because they later hear about all the fabulous conversations  
that happened in the other room and wonder why they did not get to do  
this fabulous thing. That can be very good for a conference client to  
see that people would like to do more of this sort of thing... ;o)

They are very lucky to have you adding such richness to this  
conference...

Lisa

Lisa Heft
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
Fellow, Columbia University Center for International Conflict Resolution
Opening Space
lisaheft at openingspace.net

The Open Space Learning Workshop / el Taller de Aprendizaje de Espacio  
Abierto
    - October 9-11, 2012 - London, United Kingdom
            (before the World Open Space on Open Space in London)
    - December 12-14, 2012 - San Francisco, USA
    - In English y en español: 2013 dates and countries to be announced


>
> 2012/5/25 Sandy Gee <wildbalance at gmail.com>
> 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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