[OSList] Host your first online open space for free (up to 200 participants)

[Nathan Nettleton]

> On 22 Aug 2020, Lucas Cioffi <lucas at qiqochat.com> wrote:
> 
> First, I'd like to provide free use of Qiqo for any on the OS List who
> wants to host their first OS online, up to 200 participants in a 1-day OS.

For those who haven’t seen it yet, I can highly recommend the QiqoChat platform that Lucas has built an is offering here.

I’ve used it twice in recent weeks, once as a participant and once as a facilitator, and I’m really impressed with it.

It is still fairly new in its development, so there are some minor glitches in the way it integrates with Zoom, but they are cosmetic more than anything and they don’t compromise the functionality. Overall it just works really well. 

Last weekend, I used it to run an online Open Space for my church congregation. We’ve done several previous Open Space events, and the general feedback was that while an online one can’t quite generate the same energy that you get when everyone is bumping into each other in the breaks and feeding off each other’s buzz, QiqoChat manages to replicate the normal conditions of Open Space as well as we can imagine, and it was still a very positive experience for everyone. Definitely much much better than not having an Open Space at all.

One recommendation I would make for doing Open Space online, is to rethink the timing. Zoom fatigue is a very real thing for many people, and so the prospect of spending 4-5 hours on Zoom will daunt many people. My counter-intuitive response to this was not to make the event shorter, but to make it longer and build in more breaks. We spread what we would normally do in four and a half hours over six hours, but the difference was all breaks. And in the opening presentation, I put more emphasis than usual on urging people to monitor their own energy levels and walk away when they needed to. In the prior promotional material, I urged people not to think of it as a 6 hour event, but as a series of session over the day from which they could pick and choose. That, of course, is a normal understanding for Open Space, but I think it needs more emphasis in the online events.

So if you are looking for a way to do Open Space online, Lucas is your man. Qiqochat works brilliantly.

Peace and hope,

Nathan
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Nathan Nettleton
Melbourne, Australia
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