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<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">Larry</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">As always, you raise
very good points.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">We see the theme as
critical in attracting the participants and giving them a framework to
raise their burning issues. The invitation, hopefully on one
page, might also list up to six supplementary questions raised by the
planning team as examples of some burning issues. Of
course, the theme itself is a given of sorts, because it defines the
overall focus of the event.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">We see the event as
a process to deal with existing issues and propose future actions.
Because flipchart sheets are always blank until someone writes the
issue at the top and the dialogue begins, the process deals with
actions for the future. Sometimes the future gets diverted by
baggage from the past, but this rarely happens.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">Our reluctance to
discuss what happens before it happens avoids sponsors feeling they
can manage the event. It also avoids limits on what participants
might discuss and propose. As said previously to Chris Weaver,
we find participants are very responsible people, not likely to abuse
an opportunity to contribute to their future. As a result, our
events tend to be self governing, because people recognise and accept
there are limits. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">Accordingly,
resources are not always an issue. When the public is involved,
it often is about the sponsor doing something different without extra
costs - marketing, access, information, transport, etc.
When it involves resources, the action team has an opportunity to make
a case for the allocation, something perhaps difficult under other
circumstances, particulary when no comparative sense of priorities
exists.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">I would rather take
Harrison's approach and let the outputs flow and sponsors respond
accordingly. In this way, everyone can be surprised. As
almost all our events are 1 to 1.5 days and involve public or quasi
public and voluntary organisations, the drive to micromanage resources
is less than I would imagine it would be in the corporate
sector.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">Still a sponsor has
to ask the question: what am I going to do with a team of people
(possibly inside and oustide the organisation) who want to do
something that might generate trangible benefits? How do we get
to this stage, deal with prerogatives, minimise limits and maximise
trust? How do we keep the<u><b> post</b></u> space open
for possibilities? </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">I also like Joelle's
statement:</font><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000"> I
don't talk a lot about "givens," though I do ask some
questions about what will happen, post OS, to ideas and
recommendations.</font><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">
Thanks for that good bit of advice.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">Cheers</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">Kerry</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">Kerry
Napuk</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000080">Open Futures
Ltd</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1"
color="#000080">Edinburgh</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1"
color="#000080">www.openfutures.com</font></div>
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