Open Space Technology - Un-conferences
The un-conference is based on an approach devised by Harrison Owen in the early 1980’s called Open Space Technology. His methodology is the notion that although the event has a specific objective, the agenda is not pre-set allowing the participants to organise the agenda themselves in order to facilitate lively discussions and interaction between delegates. The main reason that Open Space works is because it harnesses and acknowledges the power of self-organisation, which Harrison Owen suggests is one of the most important lessons of life.
Owen's un-conference is modelled on the following steps:
1. Delegates are seated in a circle, or in a concentric circle for large groups of 300 – 2000 people.
2. Introductions are carried out in order to reiterate the theme of the event and to invite delegates to identify any issue or opportunity related to the theme. This can be done by us, the Client or a Keynote Speaker who has been invited prior to the event to open and close the day.
3. Delegates who are willing to raise a topic will come to the centre of the circle, write it on a sheet of paper and announce it to the group before choosing a time and a place for discussion and posting it on a wall. That wall then becomes the agenda for the meeting. In order to make these discussions as successful as possible, it is imperative that whoever raises a topic has a true interest in it and can begin a discussion on that particular topic. There is no limit to the number of topics that a meeting can post.
4. When the topics have been posted, delegates sign up and attend those individual sessions.
5. The delegates organise each individual session and may freely decide which session they wish to attend and may switch to another session at any time.
6. Shortly after the event has finished, all discussion reports are compiled in a document and sent to delegates.
