[OSList] Bar Camp?

Martin Roell via OSList oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Wed Sep 16 01:53:02 PDT 2015


Hey Arno,

Arno Baltin via OSList wrote:
> 
> I have been assisting a group of professionals at organising their
> annual meetings for couple of years. These have been unconferences in
> different forms - Open Space, World Cafe, ... This time they chosed Bar
> Camp. 
> I have no experience with that. Reading through some materials, appears
> it is more like a technically well supported Open Space which is a
> preference of IT  people and a predecessor of OS. 
> I would appreciate any hints on how to facilitate a Bar Camp.
> It will be a 2 day meeting of (maximum) 100 participants.

Barcamp is like a badly done OpenSpace with some constraints that make
it harder to get work done.

So _basically_, if you just open space, like you normally would, but
calling the whole thing "BarCamp" (and saying the word "BarCamp" a lot,
Barcamping-People seem to like that), all will be well. (Or, in your
context, simply drop that, open space, and let people get to work.)

(Barcamps have a tendency for a "facilitator" to "help" people post
"sessions" to the marketplace. They also have a ritual where after a
person announces a "session" (it's always a "session", never an
"issue"), the "facilitator" asks the "participants" for a show of
interest ("raise your hand if you are interested in attemding this
session") so that they can then "plan" better (many hands: you get a big
room assigned). There is no circle at the beginning, and none at the
end. A lot of "teaching" takes places - extroverted people "giving"
sessions to the less extroverted one, much less walking-around, less
spontaneity. If "teaching" is the goal, they actually work decently.)

You'll probably get some slack from hardcore barcampers if you don't do
all of that; and you'll step on people's toes for not following other
barcamp-rituals, but I'd still go for it in the context you described.
Check in with your sponsor why they want "BarCamp" - what does that mean
for them, what's the important thing in that for them.

Best,

Martin
-- 
Martin Röll, Schloßberg 5, 01662 Meißen, Germany
+49 178 4984743, @martinroell, http://www.roell.net



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