Dear Gabriela - You said: Background of my present questions is, that I would not have had the courage to facilitate such big OST. My inner believe system would have stoped me to do this job - because I would have had the big fear to "damage the reputation of OST" in any kind.
- - - With your caring and attentive spirit and understanding of the essence of OST, I know that you can never damage the reputation (different in different peoples' minds ;0) of OST. I have done OST with 1500 people and I'm doing one that size again this June. I find that the secret is all in the logistics and planning team and our communication with them as to how the process typically goes - helping them visualize what the basic elements are and solving the problem as a team as to how to make that happen. With the one I am doing in June we are using a gymnasium (not great for sound but otherwise a splendid site) and our communication is all about how big signs should be, should we duplicate them so they can be seen by all, how to make a materials box for each discussion area, how helpers can help - as you can see, the same things I would do for a smaller OST. With larger events I assist people by offering them a blank time/space matrix sheet if they want to fill in the sessions they'll want to attend, and a clipboard at all discussion areas with a participant roster so each notestaker can include a checked-off participant sheet with their notes. In my largest OSTs I have not needed convergence as part of the design. I agree with Erich's observation that for great distances (once I did an OST on four floors of a hotel at once) a bit of travel time in-between sessions might help - although I find that people get there when they want to so I've ended up eliminating in-between-session time after all. In a multi-floor / multi-space event I find that good directional signage to discussion areas is essential. So you see - it's all very similar. What does impress me each time on a large event is the amount of (for pre-event conversation and meeting time and sign-making time it takes - always good to be prepared for and schedule in dates for enough meetings and for example sign making deadlines very much in advance of the event. - - - I look forward to hearing more of the conversation about assessing quality and identifying some standards for placing an OST event in the body of a conference (though in my experience the simple 'rules' are the same - best at the end if not used for the whole thing, best with the whole group of participants rather than a parallel track, etc.). Let's hear it for huge - though-through-OST-delightfully-intimate - Open Spaces! Lisa L i s a H e f t Consultant, facilitator, educator O p e n i n g S p a c e 2325 Oregon Berkeley, California 94705-1106 USA (+01) 510 548-8449 [email protected] (coming soon: www.openingspace.net) * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
