I see it about the same way as you, Gerardo, the number of people in an open space is in relation to the main space where everyone is gathering for the start, the bulletin board and the market. My rule of thumb is to ask how many folks the room will hold theater style seating (in rows) and divide that by 3 (for larger rooms you can also get the number of chairs allowed by the firedepartment and divide by three)... that usually allows both for the circle and enough space for the bulletin board.
Of course, the shape is important.
Karis large room is fairly perfect, in my experience, with dimensions similar to that of an A4 sheet (3 x 2), leaving enough space at either end of the room for the bulletin board... or for one or two breakout spaces for the time after the opening with some breaking up of the initial circle. You can probably get everyone to sit in one real circle with about 35 people, or have a very perfect circle with about 22 people and then add parts of circles on the two edges facing the narrow side of the room to accomodate about 40 people. Of course, the neat approach is to have a good guess at how many people are expected and search for a venue THEN. Another observation I have made is that the space is never too large... and spacious is grand for open space... with the additional option to have all of the action (breakout spaces etc.) all in one space for everyone to see the whole action all the time (the never-ending buffet is better outside in the hallway close to the news wall).

Greetings from Berlin where I told a potential client a couple of weeks ago that the space he has for his event with 400 folks is big enough for a 135 people open space... no response!
mmp




.03.2013 12:30, scuola superiore facilitazione wrote:
Hi Kàri.
The problem is the opening  - you need to put all participants into one
room.
So I normally calculate the /carrying capacity /on the main room.
My rule of the thumb is 3sqm per participants.
Of course you can reduce the parameter a bit according to the shape of
the room
ge


On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 11:18 PM, Kári Gunnarsson
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

    Dear Oslist

    A client is asking about how many people he can have in Open Space for
    a given venue.

    The space is divided in 3 rooms, on of them is upstairs. There
    dimensions and spaces are as follows:

    Big room: 7,8m x 12,8m (100 m2)
    Small side room: 5,0m x 8,8m (44 m2)
    Long room upstairs: 3,4m x 12,8m (43 m2)

    Total work area: 187 m2

    Here are my gestimations:
    If I where only to use the large room, then I would only invite
    40-50 people
    If I where to exclude the room upstairs then I could invite 60-70 people
    But if I would include the room upstairs, then I could perhaps invite
    up to 90 people

    What are your thoughts on venue selection?

    --
    Kári Gunnarsson
    [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
    gsm: +354 8645189 <tel:%2B354%208645189>
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    *Gerardo de Luzenberger
    ***IAF: Certified Professional Facilitator*Mob: +39 3293281343*
    
<http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org>[email protected]
    
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