How can we make the most of networking in this decade?

This process for managing meeting for large groups of people was developed by Harrison Owen. It has been used for groups as large as 2,000 people and run over several days.

Open Minded Days uses a subset which lasts a day and which works for groups of between 30 and 300 people.

The first objective is for people to discuss topics related to the theme.

The second objective is draw some conclusions from that discussion.

The third objective is to take some action if that is within the remit of those in the discussion or to communicate with those who can.

Brief details of the elements of Open Space are provided here.  More information can be found on Wikipedia , Google and in Harrison Owen's book.

The Facilitator asks everyone to recognise all the other attendees by making eye contact with them.  

The Facilitator states the theme and explains the background to Open Space Technology, the Agenda and Booking Process, the Four Principles and the One law.  

Finally the Facilitator asks the group to "Be prepared to be surprised" and repeats the Theme prior to the agenda being decided by the attendees. 

The attendees propose topics by moving to the centre of circle writing their topic on a post-it and announcing it to the circle. 

The topic owner allocates it to time and place on the matrix.  This process finishes when the no one else wishes to propose a topic.  

Topic owners have to provide a record of their discussion to the event organisers.  They will be published to all attendees.

The attendees choose the topics they wish to attend by adding their names to the matrix.

Session 1 starts by the discussion owners initiating their discussions at the agreed location.  Everyone is free to move between discussions.

This matrix will be filled with the agenda for the day. 

Those proposing a discussion announce it to the group and then choose a time and place to hold it.  

Once all the discussions have been announced everyone is free to book the discussions they wish to attend by adding their name to the list on that discussion.