Open space is a framework to let people self-organize and quickly create diverse and engaging program for the conference.
The process is more or less the following
1. Everybody who has an idea to share or question to ask writes it on a big post-it and in turn presents it to other attendees. Choose a place (4 spaces, 6 time-slots) and “book” it
2. Attendees are free to choose any slot they are up to and stay there for the whole hour or change places every now and then.
3. After 3 time-slots we have a lunch. After 3 more time-slots we have a retrospective. And then dinner.
That’s all =)
There are four main rules to follow
- Whoever come to the session is the right people
- Whatever happens in the right thing to happen
- Whenever it starts is the right time
- When it’s over, it’s over
A bit of repetition: If you want to propose a session you need just to make a sticky-note with a name, shortly introduce the topic to motivate people and choose your time and space. Nothing more, nothing less.
As an attendee use the law of two feet – come to the session you liked by the name and feel free to leave if you don’t contribute value. Choose another session or talk to people around or just relax in the sun (remember, there is always the sun even if we don’t see it).
Thus three main “roles” during the open space emerge:
- Lady-bugs who are very loyal and stay the whole session in one room to learn and contribute
- Bumblebees who fly from group to group cross-pollinating the discussions
- Butterflies who sit around looking relaxed so that interesting discussions emerge around them as people pause to chat
The visual organization of the Open Space you can see on our photos from the previous events.
See you soon!