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OK, real world: here we go.<br>
<br>
ONE: Qcon London<br>
---------------------<br>
I sponsored a one-day track in a regular conf like this:<br>
- Opening the Space (plenary for this track: all participants in my
track were invited, nothing else was planned within my track at this
time)<br>
- Sessions (OS and "talking heads" in parallel, in two different but
near-by spaces, sessions timed so people could wander between the two
with less disruption )<br>
- Closing the Space (plenary).<br>
<br>
You can see our schedule online here:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://qcon.infoq.com/london-2007/tracks/show_track.jsp?trackOID=38">http://qcon.infoq.com/london-2007/tracks/show_track.jsp?trackOID=38</a><br>
<br>
One interesting side effect was: some of the people who were waiting
only for the talking heads sessions came to the Opening because there
wasn't anything else, and so they learned about OpenSpace. We had a
small group, perhaps 120 people in all, of which about 40 came to the
Opening Circle. This might be different from other conferences, in that
some people came to the conf particularly for this track, so we were
not necessarily competing with the other three tracks happening on that
day.<br>
<br>
I wasn't in the room much, as I was hosting two tracks at once, and of
course the talking heads one took a lot more work! :-)<br>
Diana Larsen was our facilitator (yay!). Diana, do you have any
reflections on how that event worked for the participants? <br>
<br>
XPdays NorthAmerica:<br>
-----------------------<br>
We used to run the Opening Circle in parallel to a tutorial. When we
stopped doing that, the complexion of the event changed. It felt more
like a party, there was more flow between OS and tutorials, because
poeple understood the rules of engagement in the (very new to them)
Open Space area. Now, these are small events, 30 to 50 people.<br>
<br>
Agile conferences:<br>
------------------<br>
At Agile2006 (1100 participants) the Opening Circle was run opposite
about twelve other tracks. Turnout was small (20 people?) and very
disappointing for some of us who attended - we felt OS hadn't been
given the attention it needed at that event, to let it really energise
people. Mind you, some great sessions still took place! However, in my
opinion, this is an antipattern. Making the Opening Circle more of a
plenary event (maybe only putting one or two events opposite it?) might
help. Some of us would like to see the whole event opened with the
Opening Circle, but it's a real conundrum, with 1600 people expected at
our next event. Multiple, concurrent Opening Circles might be fun!
We'll see what this year's committee has in mind - I'm not on it.<br>
<br>
Who else has stories about this? Kaliya, I bet.<br>
Have a good week<br>
deb<br>
<br>
<br>
Communications Esther Matte wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:0JSH005GX1NQK030@VL-MH-MR001.ip.videotron.ca"
type="cite">Hello again Dirk,
<br>
<br>
Woke up this morning wondering if it would work to have the wall
divided in three parts: the individual scheduled events grouped on say
the left part of the wall and the rest open to topics people will put
up, the right side being reserved for "new topics" after the opening on
the Monday. You would open the space on the Monday, and then people
would self-manage for the rest of the week, and closing on the last
day.
<br>
<br>
I can see this working in my head with break-out rooms, at least a few
for discussions, and one for the News Room and posted reports so that
anyone can walk in and read if they wish to, even while someone is
presenting in the main hall. Now in real life... any thoughts anyone?
<br>
<br>
Cheers from snow-stormed Verchères :-)
<br>
<br>
Esther
<br>
<br>
At 23:00 2007-12-01, you wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Hello everyone,
<br>
<br>
I'm involved with a variety of research conferences and would like to
better understand how you can fit open space into a research conference
with a set time-grid and competing events. I searched the OSList
archives and the web but didn't find anything so I hope it is ok to ask
here. (And a pointer to a previous discussion would be a perfect and
much appreciated answer.)
<br>
<br>
The research conferences I'm involved in typically have a fixed time
grid with two morning slots of 90min (30min coffee break in between),
lunch, and two afternoon slots of 90min (also 30min coffee break in
between). We have had open space at two such conferences now, and in
both cases it worked, but open space remained in competition with "the
regular program" i.e. set talks. We tried to schedule the open space
opening and ending to be without competing event but that made them
very early (late) i.e. at 8am and at 5pm. The reason open space worked
was certainly the excellent facilitators we got, but also the
enthusiasm of folks at these about 100 people conferences.
<br>
<br>
I'm trying to bring this now to a much larger research conference,
which has > 1000 people attending. I only have control over "my
track" but that track has considerable influence. Open space is viewed
as an experiment as it has never been done before at this conference. I
get one day with no competing events (Monday) and then three days of
the main conference (Tue-Thu) with lots of competing events. On Monday
we can structure the day the way we want it, on Tue-Thu we have the
aforementioned 90min sessions with coffee breaks and lunch in between.
Typical problems I expect and wonder how to deal with them:
<br>
<br>
- plenty of folks who attend don't know much about open space
<br>
- many folks will show up in the middle of the day or just 30min late
not knowing how it works expecting to participate
<br>
- the competing events will make people come and go in a disruptive way
(but maybe that's just the law of the two feet :-)
<br>
<br>
This year (2008), we have two specific additional challenges
<br>
<br>
- we have no idea how many people will actually show up for the open
space part
<br>
- space is at a premium, we may have to share a large hall so I wonder
whether that's disruptive as well
<br>
<br>
Also, does it make sense to have open space afternoons (rather than
full days)? I'm thinking of reducing event competition by having open
space in the afternoon only on the three busy days Tuesday-Thursday.
<br>
<br>
The event will take place in Oct 2008 and we'll try to be smart about
it until then to take some of the guesswork out of the equation. I.e.
early engagement like inquiring about expected open space participation
at registration time.
<br>
<br>
Also, I'm a big fan of wikis, and intend to build up buzz and
pre-organization on a wiki leading up to the conference itself.
<br>
<br>
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
<br>
<br>
Dirk
<br>
<br>
<br>
PS: We will be looking for a facilitator. Obviously, this is a paid
job, though the research conference itself is not rich. Here a first
blurp:
<br>
<br>
Open Space Facilitation Engagement Oct 2008 Nashville TN
<br>
<br>
For OOPSLA 2008, we are looking for an experienced open space
facilitator near Nashville, TN. Your engagement will be to facilitate
one full (and hopefully intense) day of open space + several half days.
Part of the job is explaining open space to those who don't know it
yet---which we expect to be many as this is the first attempt of having
open space at OOPSLA. OOPSLA is a >1000 people computer science
(research) conference, but we expect a significantly smaller number of
people to participate in the open space part only (current estimate is
between 100 and 300). Location is Nashville Convention Center, time and
date is October 2008, with initial and occasional consultations before
then to prepare for the meeting. For further questions, please contact
Dirk Riehle, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:dirk@riehle.org">dirk@riehle.org</a>
<br>
<br>
--
<br>
Phone: + 1 (650) 215 3459
<br>
Web: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.riehle.org">http://www.riehle.org</a>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="60">--
Deborah Hartmann
Agile Process Improvement Coach
Lead Editor for InfoQ.com/Agile
deborah.hartmann.net
416.996.4337
"My advice is to do it by the book,
get good at the practices,
then do as you will.
Many people want to skip to step three.
How do they know? " -- Ron Jeffries </pre>
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