Seattle Dec meeting report

Our official report is submitted to the Evolver organizers group. Please add your comments.

Regional City:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Your Name:

Lance Young

Email:

lanceyoung@yahoo.com

How many people helped organize the event?

7 person organizing committee with each chipping-in to do some aspect in a loosely coordinated way that just worked.

How many people showed up?

25 people, including myself. Half the previous month, topic, style, holidays? Need to find ways to keep folks involved.

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?

Yes we brought in a speaker with a prepared Peek Oil slide deck and worked with the SPACE folks who host the event.

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?

SPACE Venue & Education Center 7601 Greenwood Ave N., Suite 103

Seattle, WA 98103. It is a cool place like a converted warehouse with room for 100. This time we used the rectangular hall and projected on the wall and then switched around chairs to form an oval for group interaction.

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?

We almost followed the proposed schedule:

7.00 Welcome and intro

7.05 guest speaker: Jake Perrine addresses the power crisis

7:40 Jake takes a few questions

7.45 speaker: Cree covers new technologies

8.00 Lightening talks - add your own points with a concise 3-5 minute speech

8.30 Taking action - What is our vision for the future of the Seattle area

We extended the Lightening talks and removed the Taking action step as we ran over time in other sections and started late while waiting for more arrivals. We still struggle with moving the group into the action mode that they are clambering for in their comments.

How did it go? What was the response?

Given the handicaps it was a great event. The Lightening talks were a highlight as members were given 5 uninterrupted minutes to say whatever they was of interest and everyone who wanted had a chance to speak with no debate or questions. What arose was a group mind with common interests and concerns.

What themes came up?

There was a universal interest in forming a working group that does things in the real world and not just talks, thus forming a real community where people join together to accomplish shared goals

What worked well?

Less focus on the monthly topic balancing it with group interaction about or independent from the focus, e.g. Lightening Talks.

What could be improved on?

Transitions between agenda items were rough and too much agenda following versus flowing with what the crowd wanted/needed at the time. Also we need to balance information provision with mingling and activities

What did you learn?

There is a recognition and desire to form close knit working teams and move into the world to take action.

Did this give you ideas of what might be done for future Spores?

We want to try having an open space style portion of the meeting where folks can form small groups and have direct conversation about a mutually interesting topic.

Description of the Lightening Talks Technique

This presentation technique came from software conferences trying to fit in the people with a narrow focus that have something to say, yet could not contain an audience for a one hour time slot. Instead they fit in 10 or so talks into an hour by limiting each speaker to 5 minutes. This makes the speakers focus on 1-3 key points while introducing themselves, their interests and pointing people towards more information and providing contact info to follow-up.

In our case as few had time to prepare talking points, I set a timer for 5 minutes and let each person interested talk about what they cared about. The group informed me that I needed to give them warning instead of cutting them off at 5 min so I reset the timer for 4 min. Quickly most folks took less than 5 min as they said their bit and stopped. Cutting-off questions and conversation was critical to getting the most number of people access to the stage. It also allows people the freedom to say anything knowing that no one will be critical or judgmental as no comments are allowed.

We stayed seated in a circle and there was always a volunteer to speak next. 90% of the group said something and common themes arose naturally. I waited till the end to interject my own thoughts and collect some of these threads and show appreciation for each person's contribution. It was a healthy and well liked section of the meeting.