Should Silicon Halton continue using the Open Space meeting format? First some background on “What is an Open Space meeting?” Open Space describes a variety of meeting styles where the participants define the agenda at the beginning and adjust it has the meeting progresses. It and the original Open Space Technology require that individuals participate without prior groupings or agendas, and that they accept the agendas and groupings that arise from the meeting process, with only minimal restrictions on scope. The are four guiding principles and one law. The Law of Two Feet: If at any time you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet and go someplace else. The Four Guiding Principles:
- Whoever is there are the right people to be there
- Whenever it starts is the right time for it to start
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
- When it’s over, it’s over
An Open Space meeting normally has a single theme. At the beginning of an Open Space meeting, each individual is given the opportunity to present or post their issue. The participants then create a working agenda using these issues. The participants then attend the sessions which they have an interest in. The first Silicon Halton Meetup that I attended, held in August 2010 was an unMeetup using the Open Space meeting format. It had a theme of “What will Silicon Halton be in 2020”. At Silicon Halton Meetup #11, there was no theme defined, so I asked “Should Silicon Halton continue using the Open Space meeting format” which became part of the agenda. Some of the comments and issues:
- Due to the nature of an Open Space meeting, a lot of time is spent at the beginning determining the agenda, which makes the meet-ups longer and reduces the amount of time that can be spent networking or discussing the agenda items
- Without a predefined agenda or theme, some members of the SH community may choose not to attend since they don’t know in advance what will be discussed
- An open space meeting lends itself well to serendipitous connections, discoveries and discussions, which are needed to generate new ideas
- Perhaps SH could limit the number of Open Space meet-ups to a few per year, each with a predefined theme. The agenda could be defined and discussed on-line for a few weeks before the meet-up, thereby allowing all members of SH to know beforehand what the topics of discussion will be
- SH meet-ups are used by different people for different reasons: personal networking, education, marketing, and recruiting and as such every meet-up should allow most people to come away satisfied with their attendance
- Each meet-up should provide everyone the opportunity to introduce themselves and connect with others
About the Silicon Halton Blogger
Philip Papadopoulos is a Technology Consultant with expertise in delivering solutions that meet an organizations operational and strategic information needs. He works with clients to bridge the gap between technology and business and is involved in projects that require improving technologies and business processes, and integrating systems and data, so that effective business decisions can be made quickly and easily. Silicon Halton note: Philip conducted an Open Space session at Meetup #11. This blog post was generated from that event. Thanks Philip!