At 11:04 AM 6/15/99 -0700, you wrote: >Reading Birgitt's report reminds me to report on the Open Space for 400 >that I facilitated a couple months ago. It was the annual conference of an >association of conference center professionals, and the Open Space was the >second day of the four day event. The location was Squaw Valley, >California. > >Four hundred were seated in three concentric circles in the largest >ballroom on the property. It felt amazingly intimate. After a rousing >musical introduction by Sourdough Slim, a banjo picking master in cowboy >clothes, I walked to the center and opened the space. > >I try to not take personally the fact that the weather was absolutely >gorgeous, after an evening of fresh snow, and that two thirds of those >present decided to use the Law of Two Skis! Those who remained indoors >engaged in thirty different sessions and returned with enthusiastic >appreciation for the process and the content before boarding buses to Reno >for more recreation. > >The closing circle that day was conducted in darkness because we only had >30 minutes, and decided to use an audience-voting system (handheld devices) >which projected the results immediately onto a projection screen. It did >not feel so intimate, but the feedback was clear to all. ******************************** Sounds wonderful Jeff -- but I think there is probably also a lesson here about "appropriate technology" Over the years I have been approached by the purveyors of any number of electronic widgets and gidgets. In most cases I found they simply got in the way, and performed tasks that could be more easily, and usefully performed by the participants themselves. My experieince has been -- technology is wonderful, but it is essential to remember what is the horse and what is the carriage.
Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 USA 301-469-9269 (phone) 301-983-9314 (fax) email o...@tmn.com Website http://www.tmn.com/~owen Open Space Institute website http://www.tmn.com/openspace