Hello Asiak,
I'd suggest the following:
1. Create 3 sessions of 60 minutes each, no need to plan the breaks,
participants will do this themselves - only the hotel needs
to understand they need to be flexible and make sure whatever is
needed is available when people take a break;
2. The number of topics is as many as participants want to post. So do
not create a limited number of slots. In my experience 250
people tend to come up with between 40 and 70 issues (the bigger the
group, the more likely someone else has posted the topic
you had in mind). I expand the agenda wall as more topics come up.
3. Just the time needed to read out the topic and say their name. No
long explanations.
With 250-300 participants, the whole opening (opening statement,
introducing OS, making the agenda) typically takes some
45 minutes.
4. Do not split up the topic into two, at least not for logistical
reasons - only if you have two key issues which are clearlily not
connected. On the other hand, why not split up the time between your
10 minute talks and open space sessions in another way ?
Last year, during WikiSym, we had a bit of the same issue, and decided
to have a joint opening session, creating the agenda for
the Open Space. After that, talks took place in one large room, and OS
sessions in another large room, allowing participants to
move from one part of the conference to the other, following their
noses .... This created much more space for all to have the
conversations (or presentations) they wanted to have
.
Finally, I feel that creating the topics is not time taken deducted
from time to discuss. It often feels more like creating a joint picture
of what is essential as seen from the different perspectives, and I
find often when the agenda is done, the agenda wall shows a diagnosis
of where the group is at as related to the topic - both in terms of the
important topics put on the agenda, as well as those who one might
expect which have not been put there.
Have fun !!!!!
Mange hilsner
Gerard Muller
Open Space Institute Denmark
Phone: (+45) 21269621 Skype: openspace1
Mail: g...@openspace.dk
On Nov 18, 2007, at 4:24 PM, aslak hellesoy wrote:
Hi all,
I'm one of the organisers of a conference for agile software
development in Norway (http://smidig.no/smidig2007/talks).
It's two days and both days will have lots of 10 minute talks before
lunch (lightning talks) and OST after lunch.
We're expecting 250-300 people to attend, and I'm starting to get a
little overwhelmed about the OST sessions.
I have attended several smaller Open Space meetings, but never this
big, so I was hoping someone with experience of big OST meetings can
give some advice:
* Is 3 times 45 minutes topics (and 15 min break) ok?
* How many topics should we strive to create?
* How long should each participant get to suggest a topic?
* Should we split up the introduction/topic suggestion in two big
groups?
My main worry is that with a big group like this it will be
challenging to create enough topics (and do it within a reasonable
time) so that people can put good use of the three hours they have
each day. I've read that OST has been used on much larger groups, but
I'm a little puzzled about the logistics.
Any help appreciated!
*
*
==========================================================
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
*
*
==========================================================
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
