If you’ve been in the studio over the past month, you’ve likely heard us talking about our Half-Birthday ROpenspace. While we love the format, it’s not super common, so we put together a little explainer to help you know what a ROpenspace is, what it isn’t, and help decide if it’s the spot for you.
The Big Picture:
ROpenspaces were born out of ‘open space technology’ – a framework for creating participant-driven, dynamic events. Open spaces run on four principles:
- Whoever comes are the right people.
- Whenever it starts is the right time.
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened.
- When it’s over it’s over.
It’s alchemy – a combination of people and place and time that couldn’t exist anywhere else. You change the event just by showing up (and that’s the coolest thing in the world). At a ROpenspace we focus on the beauty of what is.
If you’re familiar with (r)open spaces, you’ll also know about The Law of Mobility: if you find that you’re bored – you aren’t learning or contributing or engaged – use your two feet (or whatever you use to get around) and find a place where you are.” We’re each empowered to make our own best day, whatever that looks like.
Run of Show:
But what does all of that mean in practice? A bunch of folks get together, decide what they want to talk about, and then talk about those things! Lucky for us, we’ve got Graydancer to shepherd us through the process. Gray originated ROpenspaces and is maybe the best there is at creating the kind of space a ROpenspace needs to flourish. We can think of a ROpenspace in two phases:
Building the Space
At the start of the day, Gray will get up in front of everyone and run through our shared agreements (see above) and the Law of Mobility. Then, he’ll explain the process for setting up The Board – our shared schedule for the day. Everyone in the room is invited to contribute by proposing a session – writing a topic, question, or idea on a notecard to add to The Board. Sessions can be something you’ve got a lot of opinions about, a burning question, or a thing you want. You don’t have to be an expert, you just need to be willing to show up and say “hey, what about this?”
Past sessions have included:
- a shoulder massage circle
- chair suspensions
- leather, rope, and service
- nasal passage predicament play
Once we’ve got all our session ideas, Gray will work with folks to find the right time and location for each one. Some ideas need hardpoints, some ideas need a pillow pit for conversations. It’s his job to figure out which are which! Once the board is set, we move to:
Doing the Thing
This is where that Law of Mobility comes into play. You aren’t obligated* to be anywhere, so where do you want to be? Pick a session, try it out, and if it’s not working for you? Pick another one. Take a walk for tacos. Track down that person with a neat sticker to ask them where they got it. Rinse and repeat.
So, how to you make sure that this ROpenspace is the event for you? Show up.
*except a session you put on the board, skipping that is bad form