Hi, Brendan's post made me think of some of the work my wife, Maureen and I have done combining OS and a speaker.
We've had incredible success. Thus far we've done some different versions - often in conjunction with a speaker's bureau (they book speakers for various events, corporate, conferences, etc.). One model consists of the speaker who was selected by the organization to give a message, concentrate on a theme, who speaks for 1 hr then we move into OS based on the invitation, "You've just heard a speaker with some fantastic ideas. How can you take those ideas and integrate them into the daily activities of your organization?". Generally, the OS time is a minimum of 3 hours to a maximum of 6 hours, including time set aside for conversion. These events have gone extremely well, with a great mix of excitement for the organization as well as the speaker's themselves. It really gives the participants the ability and the responsibility to take the ideas they like from a presentation and make them meaningful in their own lives. Another wrinkle on that theme includes an invitation sent out prior to the event where the speaker, the topic, and the OS are introduced. Group size has ranged from 60 - 250. I'm sure we could do more. We have the speaker address the group in circle, so that the spirit of inclusion is supported from the beginning. We have our first multiple day event using this model scheduled for January where the speaker will begin at the beginning of the 3 days, with the rest of the meeting held in OS. We can't wait to see what comes out of having more time to spend in OS after the group gets stimulated by the ideas of the speaker. We'll keep you posted. With Grace and Love, Zelle ************ Zelle Nelson Engaging the Soul at Work/Know Place Like Home/State of Grace Document www.stateofgracedocument.com ze...@maureenandzelle.com office - 828.693.0802 mobile - 847.951.7030 Ravenswood - Isle of Skye 2021 Greenville Hwy Flat Rock, NC 28731 Brendan McKeague wrote: G'day Joe I have used this recently at a three-day national conference - non-residential - about 100 folks - theme: Spirituality in Leadership and Management. For days two and three, the mornings had keynote addresses and then traditional smorgasbord offerings after lunch - three streams to choose from - 1) presentation of papers - academic stream 2) workshops - interactive, facilitator-directed stream 3) Open Space - 2 x one hour conversation sessions First day about 4 people came into the 'space' initially - had a conversation, were joined by another couple - had some further conversations - were satisfied with the choices; second day first session 6 people - later joined by about 10 others - very stimulating and energised - people who admitted to being overloaded with info and wanted some time for good conversations... From my perspective - this was about using the framework of OS for creating space for conversation - it worked insofar as the right people came etc - and received what they needed at the time. Was it Open Space? dunno about that...certainly a version of OS - though not very satisfying for me as space-holder - in comparison to the 'real thing' ....eeek, what am I saying? since my views are irrelevant (other than 'silent witness' ) in the 'evaluation' in any event - the folks who came created their own space and whatever happened happened... I would offer this again within such a conference setting - at the very least it gave participants an articulated 'freedom-option' that was not normally available to them (or so they believed...!) Brendan -- ÐÏ à¡± á * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
