Remembering a great Open Space, and now into practice

The Open Space Practices

An email on the OSLIST today prompted me to find the story of the Open Space event I did in Alaska with Judi Richardson and Michael Herman. The event was a gathering of 200 middle school students, teachers and counsellors and the theme was “Becoming a Peacemaker.” Over the months that followed Julie sent stories about Open Space blossoming all over Alaska and Michael collected and posted them at his site.

That was also the first time we offered the Open Space practice workshop together in a two day format. We had 60 people in that initial training, and in the next year Michael and I offered it together and separately in Canada, the USA, Ireland, India, Nepal, Australia and New Zealand.

Last week I was with 15 remarkable people near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island offering the most recent iteration of the workshop, a three day version that really builds on the practices of Open Space. We feel now we are truly moving into the realm of practice in a deeper way, teaching learning and writing about it.

So here’s a marker to remember where it all began.