550 people in Open Space

I just opened space here for 550 people at the Food and Society Conference. This was the biggest OST gathering I have ever facilitated, and it’s huge in importance as well. There must have been close to 100 sessions proposed for today and I’m just gathering my energy for a long day and night ahead of compiling the proceedings document.

I’m a stranger to the good food movement in the United States, and so it’s hard for me to know what the agenda looks like, but like all Open Space events I trust that it is what is needed right now. Our organizing question was: “If you take the margins and social justice seriously, what are the bold conversations you need to have to amplify and accelerate the impact of good food.” I stepped into the circle following a powerful talk on structural racism in the food system given by today’s provocateur, Maya Wiley from the Center for Social Inclusion. She dropped a great challenge into the centre of the circle, speaking about the radical nature of this room full of people. People were ready to get to work. I have rarely seen a flood to the centre of the room as I just experienced. It’s kind of overwhelming.

So the participants are in a break now, and soon enough the remainder of the day will be self-organized. Learning a lot about working with great friends, all of whom had my back this morning and had the logistics nailed down pretty well. We had to prepare 140 breakout spaces, in a conference facility that is over the top luxurious and is pretty concerned about the aesthetics of randomly places pods of chairs. Within these constraints, the conference staff have been great and the hosting team rocks. It’s impossible to do one’s best work alone.

You can follow along with the gathering at the Food and Society website.

[tags]fas2008[/tags]