Back in 1985, Harrison Owen noticed that the greatest interaction at meetings he organized took place during coffee breaks, not in the sessions that had taken him more than a year to organize. He asked himself if it might be possible to combine the level of synergy and excitement present in a good coffee break with the substantive activity and results characteristic of a good meeting. Drawing on his experience working with groups as diverse as communities in West Africa, corporations in South Africa and Venezuela, and associations in the United States, he developed Open Space Technology - a communication method that transfers responsibility for a meeting's organization, content, and outcomes to the group itself. It enables participants from diverse backgrounds to contribute, so that they work together to bring about extraordinary results.

Participants are given no agenda. They organize educational content themselves, by identifying topics of direct interest, all around a central theme of strategic importance. Then, the meeting breaks into parallel working groups, which discuss each of the topics. The room is set in concentric circles of chairs, because, as Owen said in his book, Open Space Technology, A User's Guide, "The circle is the fundamental geometry of human communication ... Whoever heard of a 'square' of friends?" (See interview with Owen on page 60.)

The Four Principles of Open Space are:

1 Whoever comes are the right people.

2 Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened.

3 Whenever it starts is the right time.

4 When it's over, it's over.

Basically, this means that if you are hosting a discussion on a certain topic, you don't have to have the chief experts. You should have a diverse gathering of people who are passionate about the subject, whatever their background. Everyone's ideas are important.

The conversation should not be steered in one direction or another. There is an "abundance of possibilities" to be discussed, according to Lisa Heft, vice president of the Open Space Institute of the United States, and an Open Space facilitator.

Whenever people start a conversation is the right time. "Creativity doesn't run on a schedule," Heft said. Whenever people begin to discuss the topic, the session begins. When all of the issues have been debated, and the problems solved, then the group can disband and the members can join other discussions in progress. And if it takes longer than one session to discuss the issue, the discussion group can keep going. Great ideas and important discussions do not always fit into set time frames. Heft has observed members of an Open Space conference feeling "that good type of tired," after a few days in Open Space, and finding others who shared their passions and interests.

Open Space also has the "Law of Two Feet:" If you are not contributing where you are, go someplace else. Open Space participants have the opportunity and the "permission" to change groups, or to leave the session or conference. "If you are neither learning nor contributing to a discussion, this guideline recommends that you join another session that will engage you," said Heft. "Your best work is needed in Open Space, and actually, it is respectful of the group to come and go where you are contributing the most," she added.

A Meeting Xperiment

Indeed, Open Space is not a traditional meeting as we generally know it. That is why the methodology was included as one of the Meetings Xperiments sessions at PCMA's 50th Annual Meeting.

Facilitated by Joan Eisenstodt, chief strategist for Eisenstodt Associates, the session largely introduced the Open Space concept to participants. "Am I in the right room?" was a common reaction among attendees as they entered the room. Others commented that it looked as if the room hadn't been set. Some were more game: "I thought, 'This is going to be fun and different,'" one attendee said, and another added, "I picked a winner; there are no more chairs available." One respondent seemed to sum it up for many attendees: "My first reaction was that the room was not ready. After explanations, I thought it was going to be fun to create my own meeting experience."

"We wanted to expose people to a new way of learning - to a technique they could use and to a way of 'setting' a room that was non-traditional, allowing people to sit in a way that made sense to them," Eisenstodt said. "When a group is not at all familiar with Open Space and is used to very traditional meetings, and when we have a short time to explore topics, I have found allowing people to think through what they want to do about seating begins the process. It also indicates the experience will be different. I prefer a circle of chairs - and I like using something that will get the group interested and involved in the beginning," she added. Yet, she also observed that when some people came in, they placed their chairs in a straight row, as they would in traditional sessions, which she found "fascinating."

The "no more chairs" scenario was actually caused by the curiosity of meeting registrants. "We didn't think that many folks would attend - maybe 50," Eisenstodt said. However, the session drew more than three times that number, and extra chairs needed to be added. However, once the participants broke into separate groups, the chairs became irrelevant. Many groups sat on the floor, talking animatedly about their chosen topic.

Participants not only learned firsthand how to meet in this new format, they also learned from their discussion groups. "I have two pages of great ideas," said one participant. "Great ideas, and different approaches to the way we do things," was a typical response in the evaluations. (For discussion topics, see the "Open Space at PCMA" box above.)

A Two Decades-old Concept: New to Planners?

It is puzzling that the Open Space concept, which has been available for 20-plus years, is unfamiliar to so many meeting professionals. "We are so used to meetings the way they've always been," Eisenstodt said. "We forget that people attend meetings for peer-to-peer learning that happens at breaks and in informal conversations where ideas are sparked. We need to be inquisitive about new formats for meetings. Part of my curiosity is that I find meetings boring!" she claimed. "We say we want to change and we don't. I can't think of any of our industry meetings that have done much with Open Space. Henry Ernstthal and I did a session at an ASAE [American Society of Association Executives] meeting three or so years ago. IACC [International Association of Conference Centers] has used it a few times. They all met with success."

"I think Open Space has not been used extensively in the meetings industry because people haven't seen a model of how it works," Heft said.

"I think if people tried open space with their groups they'd be pleasantly surprised with the outcome. The concept and practice would be supported if facilities embraced a less traditional style of learning and room set, as well," Eisenstodt added.

Indeed, if the PCMA Annual Meeting participants learned by their own experience, they would begin organizing meetings in Open Space. Evaluations show that after initial apprehension or confusion, most registrants reacted favorably to the session. Typical comments were:

• "I felt more comfortable; I am so sick of traditional podium and theater formats." 
• "I liked the permission to stay or leave."
• "There was a tremendous increase in participation and different perspectives."
• "It was a very open approach, and your mind was opened to all different options." 
•  "I felt at ease to talk in the group! I felt like I really fit in. Learner as leader."
• "It opened up my 'shy normalcy.''
• "I need help getting 'out of the box.'"
• "Learning sneaks up on you."
• "It was like getting the best learning from 15 sessions without having to sit through lectures!"

Using Open Space

What of using Open Space, or of spreading the word to others? "I'll share with my colleagues how this experimental session was accepted and favored by all," noted one enthusiastic participant. Suppliers said that they would share the information on how Open Space works to planners as "something new to rejuvenate their meetings." Independent planners said they would share the concept with their clients.

"It will work for my meetings, because we have a very chaotic and open-minded group," said one participant. "I am going to try this at my February meeting with 100 people," added another. Participants hoped to use Open Space because "we have very dry content and need more engagement" or because their members like meeting face-to-face and brainstorming. Others were convinced that this was a method that would work especially well with industries that are going through a lot of change. Some members hoped to use Open Space at their PCMA chapter meetings.

One enthusiast encouraged the PCMA Annual Meeting organizers to continue with the Open Space format. "PLEASE give me more education in this format. I'd like it as an option in every time slot," she wrote.

Indeed, students attending the Xperimental session suggested that the student program at next year's annual meeting be conducted in Open Space. "I've talked with Bill Host, a faculty member involved in the PCMA student programs, about it. That would allow the students to learn in a very different way and to set their own agenda," Eisenstodt said.

Yet, many attendees were skeptical that they would be able to transfer their new knowledge of Open Space to their associations. "We have a very conservative leadership," noted one meeting professional. And others felt that their meetings are too structured and not open to change, that their members are closed-minded, and wouldn't respond, or would perceive Open Space as a waste of time. "I work with doctors, and I don't think they would like to place their chairs around the room. However, we do have open ideas meetings," observed one respondent, indicating that the session provided food for thought even for those not entirely sold on the format for their members.

Many participants were willing to start out small and use Open Space for sales meetings, staff meetings, and for workshops within their larger meetings. "Introducing the concept by 'baby steps' means to try it at a committee or staff meeting first, and then introduce it, as PCMA did, at one session, before taking it to the larger group," Eisenstodt said.

The conventional wisdom of a true Open Space meeting is that the entire conference should be organized this way. "In a true Open Space meeting, you don't go in and out of the format," said Heft. However, she can see the value of introducing Open Space to the skeptical in a gradual way. "For a two-and-a-half day meeting, you might start the conference on the first day in a traditional format. Then, you could move to Open Space for the entire second day, processing issues introduced on Day 1. Using Open Space would invite more knowledge sharing, honoring every participant's expertise, interests, and wisdom. A theme might be 'what more do we want to explore, teach, share, solve, and learn together before we go our separate ways?' The last half-day could be spent in celebration of achievement," Heft noted.

What meeting organizer hasn't had problems getting attendees to stay until the closing bell? By recognizing their input, and celebrating ideas from all discussion groups, you could entice registrants to stay until the end.

Making Open Space Work

Open space works best when groups need to deal with hugely complex issues over a relatively short period of time. It is also effective when there are issues of real concern, a diversity of players, and an existing passion about the issues, including the presence of conflict.

In Open Space Technology, A User's Guide, Owen tells of a meeting that convened 250 Native Americans, federal employees, and representatives of state and local governments. They were to develop cooperative agreements for the effective expenditure of $1.5 billion for highway construction on tribal and public lands. Within an hour-and-a-half, even the skeptics were hard at work dealing with issues of personal concern to them. During a two-day meeting, they produced a 150-page book of proceedings that reflected the joint wisdom of the group. One of the Native Americans said he had never felt so listened to, and so much a part of the discussion. And, from concept to finish, the time lapse was no more than two months. In fact, planning meetings in a short time frame is an advantage of Open Space. As Heft points out, "You still have the logistical details and the promotion of the event to attend to. But you shift the responsibility of the content to the participants - not to the program committee and speakers."

An article in the April 1994 issue of Training (www.co-intelligence.org/S-RockportOST20million.html) authored by Owen and Srikumar S. Rao, tells another success story. Shoe manufacturer The Rockport Company convened all of its employees in an Open Space meeting to explore new directions. A security guard, who was not a company employee, overheard a discussion of new products. He said he would love to wear shoes as comfortable as those produced by Rockport, but his company's dress policy stated they did not "look right" as part of his uniform. Why couldn't the company redesign the uppers so that they met with the security company's uniform specifications? By developing the product suggested by the security guard, the company expected sales of $20 million per year.

 Open Space does not work when the organizing committee wants to control the content, or when the board or a small group of organizers want to control the meeting, the learning process, and the outcome. "Don't use Open Space if the 'powers that be' want to control the information disseminated, or do not want to tap into the knowledge of people in the room," advised Heft.

Adapting to Open Space

Open Space is effective for large and small gatherings alike. Heft emphasizes that she has facilitated meetings for 300, 800, even 1,500 people. "The meeting begins with an Opening Circle where the facilitator explains the process, and then the participants co-create the agenda and convene their own discussion groups. The meeting or conference ends with a Closing Circle for comments and reflections," she said. It has worked for all types of meetings, including international groups, where participants spoke multiple languages. "I have seen interpreters waved away, because participants help and translate for each other as the meeting progresses," Heft said. Open Space is now practiced in more than 100 countries.

Heft has successfully facilitated groups of doctors, a wide range of researchers - including physicists, geoscientists, and biologists - as well as engineers, unions, and management.

"I've found that if one explains the process well it can work with almost any group. It's a matter of setting different expectations," added Eisenstodt. "People want to talk about what they are learning and share solutions. It's simply different and more 'formalized' in the Open Space process. If we explain to people that Open Space is taking what they've done at coffee breaks and receptions and putting it in a place where they can have richer conversations, they will all 'get it.'"

Contributing Editor Sara Torrence, CMP, is president of Sara Torrence and Associates, a meeting and event consulting firm in Gaithersburg, Md. She is the author of How to Run Scientific and Technical Meetings. She thanks Joan Eisenstodt and Lisa Heft for their contributions to this article. Heft welcomes readers to contact her at lisaheft@openingspace.net for ideas.

Logistics for an Open Space Meeting

Facilities: Secure a room that holds double the number of your expected attendees, so that there is enough room for Open Space to occur. This is a minimum. The bigger the room, the better. A variety of breakout spaces adjacent to the room is also useful - gardens, hallways, terraces. Meetings with large groups should have a good quality sound system and cordless microphones. The room should be square, so that a circle or circles can be formed more easily. There should be one large, unobstructed wall. Natural light also helps create a more relaxed atmosphere.

Room Setup: The room should be set up with chairs in a circle, or concentric circles for larger groups. The middle area should be clear. The unobstructed wall will serve as the "community bulletin board," so it should be able to take masking tape, on which to post flip chart paper. Harrison Owen, the creator of Open Space, recommends that the walls pass the "tape test," and that facility management should be advised of the necessity of taping paper to the walls. There should be tables set up for laptop computers, and tables for food service (refreshment breaks and/or lunch).

Equipment: Flip chart and one full pad of paper; flip chart markers; Post-it notes; scissors; rolls of masking tape; tablets on which to record notes; laptop computers for recording discussions, and a printer with plenty of paper.

Food: Serve portable items such as sandwiches, and whole fruit. Use disposable cups for beverages.

Facilitators: It is important to contact a conference facilitator early in the planning stages, both to reserve the person's time, and for assistance in planning the meeting. For a list of facilitators, go to http://openspaceworld.org/cgi/wiki.cgi?FacilitatorDirectory. - S.T.

Open Space at PCMA

Title of Session: The Future of Meetings Explored in Open Space

Xperiment: Alternative programming, which lets the audience structure the content of the session through intensive interaction.

Background: In Open Space, the program committee may select the issue to be explored (in this case, "The Future of Meetings"). The participants determine the actual discussion areas.

Topics: Attendees were asked by the facilitator, Joan Eisenstodt, to identify challenges that the meetings industry is facing in the 21st century. Responses included: ° innovation in meetings

• international meetings
• green meetings
• demographic shifts
• technology/virtual meetings/multiple meeting locations
• designing hotels to meet new meeting needs
• networking
• where do students fit in?
• different/unique meeting spaces
• meetings as events.

Process: Participants were given a few minutes to "shop" for the group they wanted to join. The person who suggested the topic acted as group leader, while group members added their ideas in each discussion group.

Attendee Reactions: Session attendees were enthusiastic about this approach to programming, most saying they felt truly involved in the process. Others liked the fact that they had "permission" (by the ground rules for Open Space) to leave or change discussion groups. "I can't imagine one association that couldn't use Open Space somewhere," said one attendee.

Follow-up: If you attended the Open Space Meeting Xperiment session, and have used or plan to use the concept in your meetings, please e-mail Glen Ramsborg, Ph.D., at gramsborg@pcma.org, Joan Eisenstodt at eisenstodt@aol.com, or Sara Torrence, CMP, at sara.torrence@att.net. - S.T.

An Interview With Harrison Owen, the Founder of Open Space

CONVENE: You are the "father" of Open Space. Tell us about its origin.

OWEN: In 1983, I planned an international congress as an unpaid volunteer. I spent more than one year planning the program, lining up the speakers, and attending to logistical details. The conference was a great success: Everyone said they enjoyed the content. But I noticed that people were most energized when they had self-directed learning, at the coffee breaks. So, when I was asked to organize the 1985 meeting, I said to myself, "It will not be organized in the same way as before."

The idea for Open Space sort of rolled out of my mind. I was sitting on the patio on a beautiful spring day, thinking about how the meeting could be organized. After the first martini, I had a bit of reverie. I thought back to my work in West Africa, and how people at community meetings sat in a circle. Then I thought about the synergy in the marketplace of the village. By the second martini, the Open Space concept was born. People would sit in a circle. They would decide their own agenda, post what they wanted to discuss on a bulletin board, and determine the place and time for each of the discussions. It was an "indigenous marketplace" model.

In July 1985, we convened the meeting in Monterey, Calif. Eighty-five corporate executives took two hours to organize the agenda. And then we went to work. For the next five days, everyone was energized and engaged. They didn't find the Open Space concept strange at all. As of now, Open Space has been used more than 60,000 times in 120 different countries, for groups from five to 2,000.

CONVENE: To what do you attribute the worldwide enthusiasm for the Open Space concept?

OWEN: First of all, it works very well in high-conflict areas. I have seen people working in Open Space cause miraculous things to happen. People who have been dominated so long by dictators or restrictive political systems have a hard time believing in themselves. This is true of people who are frightened or alienated as well. Open Space opens a door or a window for these people, and positive things happen to them. Any time people work in Open Space, they grow. As they grow, they get praise. And then, they start to believe in themselves.

CONVENE: Please give some examples of how this has worked.

OWEN: It's been used extensively in Russia and Ukraine. The government of Ukraine hired 40 or 50 facilitators to work with local communities, to learn to govern themselves and to build community infrastructure. In Bogotá, 1,200 street kids, disadvantaged and alienated, were convened in Open Space to generate ideas on how to stop violence and get along in the world. They came up with excellent ideas of how to find jobs, support themselves, to calm down, and learn to live with others peacefully.

One of my most moving experiences was at a gathering of 50 Palestinians and Israelis in Jerusalem. Even during the meeting, there was a lot of violence going on in the streets. But, convened in Open Space, the vastly different participants discovered that there is humanity on the other side of the issue. At the end, they were hugging and kissing each other. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. One Palestinian woman said to me, "You have reborn my hope." I hadn't done it - she had, through her empowerment in Open Space.

CONVENE: Please share some success stories that have worked in other situations, such as corporate America.

OWEN: You already referenced the increase in revenue to the Rockport shoe company, because of the ideas of a security guard. Rockport's CFO also cites the increased productivity of its inventory systems which also came out of the same six-hour Open Space meeting. In total, there was $28 million in savings in one year - an 8 percent increase to the bottom line of $350 million income!

I was in Atlanta during the planning of the Olympics there. AT&T was planning its corporate pavilion, which was to be on the periphery of the corporate area, and was expected to draw 5,000 people daily. But then, they decided to move the pavilion to the center of the corporate village - which would attract 75,000 people daily. This required a much larger structure than the one already planned. And the Olympics were only eight months away! In two days' time, 23 design engineers convened in Open Space, and had a new pavilion designed, complete with architectural drawings. They were on their cell phones ordering materials ... and they were still talking to each other. Finding a solution in two days - rather than months, or even a year - increased productivity 1,500 percent.

One of my clients is DuPont. They convened 175 polymer chemists to discuss the future of Dacron in the United States. I had not tried Open Space with a "real live business" before, but they wanted to use it. Within 15 minutes, the chemists were hard at work, coming up with viable options. Frankly, I was more surprised than they were that this worked so well in this situation.

The point is that the natural experience of self-organizing systems works well with groups. When the powers of self-organization are applied to people, productivity soars.

CONVENE: With all of this success, why is Open Space Technology not more pervasive in the meetings industry? The majority of people attending the PCMA session in January were unfamiliar with Open Space. And it is not just PCMA. A vast number of other professional societies in the meetings, conventions, and exhibitions industry have not embraced the concept. Why do you think this is so?

OWEN: You know, I have never figured this out. Perhaps if you are trained to look at something in a certain way - such as traditional meeting design - you have a difficult time learning something new.

CONVENE: How would you recommend that meeting organizers who were enthusiastic about the PCMA session introduce Open Space to their organizations?

OWEN: Human resources professionals have been using Open Space a long time. Perhaps they could help introduce it to an association.

One of the major issues facing many organizers is that, when operating in Open Space, the meeting is going to get out of control. It makes them nervous, so they "narrow space" to ensure outcomes. But then, nothing happens.

If people want to be in charge, then Open Space is going to be anathema to them. But people who are open to new ideas, who enjoy learning from each other, will welcome Open Space, and have fun while they are doing business.

Stress the return on investment with your leadership; the increase in productivity, which has been documented.

Next month, I am going to facilitate the Second International Congress of Rabbis and Imams for Peace for 250 people in Seville, Spain. The entire meeting will be conducted in Open Space. - S.T.