Thursday, October 24, 2013
Using Open Space Technology: The New Coffee Break
HowlRound: The best parts of conferences are often the coffee breaks, right? That’s when you get to talk one-on-one with that person you’ve wanted to connect with all day. That’s when you get to talk about the things you care most about, when you share best practices, philosophies, or new resources spurred by the day’s presentations. What would happen if a conference could be planned as one long coffee break? What kinds of insights and actions would come from a full day of coffee-break connections? For several decades, countless numbers of individuals worldwide have participated in Open Space meetings, a format originated by Harrison Owen whereby conference participants create the meeting’s agenda and drive the discussions. Now, I’m a concrete, practical kind of person, so when I learned that an Open Space Technology conference means there are no speakers, there is no agenda, that breakout sessions are determined by participants the day of the conference, I laughed a derisive little laugh and said, “There is no way this will ever work.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
This sounds really interesting. I too would be skeptical of such a freeform meeting were it not for the points that the author made about the attendees. It was actually a way of guaranteeing that everyone there was actually invested in the topic, and that if they didn't have ideas themselves, they were willing to hear what others had to say and perhaps give something to the conversation. It stops boring seminars from wasting time and resources, since a breakout session only happens if there is interest and a conversation to be had. I don't know yet if there is a place for this at a theatre conference, or if we still need more structure, but only time will tell.
This seems like a really great concept. I really like the idea that people can actually get the chance to learn and talk about what they came to the conference to do in the first place. I do have a few issues with this however. I feel like at least keeping some speakers would be beneficial because they can often bring up topics to the room that people were not even aware that they were interested in. And speakers provide a great opportunity for common ground and can both educate the masses of the the room and give a good conversation starter during those coffee breaks. My other issue is even with the two feet rule there could still be a problem of the same few people having the same conversation and not allowing new one to begin. In this setting I know I personally would struggle with putting my self into a conversation I was interested in that had already been established.
Post a Comment