When and Where?
The Open Space event will be held on Tuesday 9th September 2008 at the Thames Innovation Centre, Erith, London Borough of Bexley. The event will begin at 10am, and will run to approximately 4pm.
There is a cafe on site for lunch and refreshments.
The Thames Innovation Centre is an award-winning eco-friendly 50,000 sq ft business centre for small to medium enterprises and startups. More than just a building, they offer local businesses and residents free business support and training and are wholly owned by the London Borough of Bexley.
Located in Erith, they are superbly positioned to offer easy access to Central London, South East of England, M25, international airports, rail stations and Ebbsfleet Eurostar station.
Visit their website for more information and directions.
Open Space format
The facilitator helps the group collaboratively create an agenda - anyone can stand up and name the topic they want to discuss... and in about an hour the group will organise the topics into a schedule on the wall and sign up for items they like. And now they are ready!
The rest of the day is run by the participants - they start their respective sessions and bring notes back to the facilitator, who photographs or collates them or helps them enter their notes in a wiki... so that participants can have a record of all sessions by the next day!
It’s amazing the connections that get made - simply because people follow their passions. Likeminded people meet and spawn new ideas, plans, business relationships... it’s wonderful to watch, and memorable every time.
At the closing circle, participants are invited to share their reflections - what will be different for them, going forward from this event? OpenSpace is simply a jumping-off point... it galvanizes groups to resolve long-standing issues or move into new avenues of action.