How can we make the symposium more participatory, interactive & dynamic?

On Saturday of the Global Community Gathering, in our Open Space discussion time, i asked the question, "How can the symposium be more participatory, interactive and, ultimately, more fun?" Reanne Stack, Steve Motenko, Pete Shoemaker and John Meade were the core group in our discussion, with visiting appearances from Leslie Whiting, Ingrid Martin and Mary Brown. I noticed the open space process itself was very dynamic and engaging! I loved being in the grass, and i love circles! Tribal (Condor) peoples throughout time, have used circles and council practice to surface wisdom that is larger than the individuals.

We began our dialogue with an improv game called the "yes and" game. Each person says a phrase, around the circle, the next person says, "yes, and . . . (adding their own idea or phrase)." I like the "yes and" game, because it creates a synergy in the group and sometimes humor or unexpected ideas emerge. I've noticed that if a group can stay with the "yes and" game long enough, something always emerges that is a gift to everyone.

Here are some of the ideas we came up with:
1. Vicki Peck and I co-led a youth symposium in Albuquerque, where we utilized a circle right after "Where are we now," where we had each person say one word about how they were feeling. (There was a lot of emotion in the room that i could feel, like helium in a corked bottle.) As we went around the circle, people shared, sadness, shock, overwhelm and grief. The one-word circle share created connection and relief for all of us.

2. Pete shared with us an experiment that a friend of his in Massachusetts tried, where the group was given two 10 minute blocks to have interactive discussions about how issues of sustainability and then social justice affect their personal communities. The down side, he said, was that the Spiritual Fulfillment piece felt like it didn't receive enough attention.

3. John suggested pairing people, having them close their eyes to imagine what it would feel like to walk out into an "environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just world." As they emerged from this feeling, each pair was to create some kind of ritual or ceremony to honor this experience. Then Pete jumped in with the idea that this ritual could be some kind of high five ritual hand shake. His demonstrations of this possible celebratory hand/foot shake, were igniting and fun!

4. Ingrid acknowledged that short stretch or movement breaks help to move the energy and don't have to be long, but can be as little as everybody standing and shaking their limbs out for 30 seconds.

5. What would happen if we had the participants lead the symposium (or parts of it)? For example, the facts in "Where are we now," could be on numbered flash cards, drawn out of a bag, where participants read the cards off, in their numbered order.

6. Steve brought in Riane Eisler's 2 page story of a "Partnership School." I'm curious to explore further what this is about.

7. Reanne and John spoke of the benefit of storytelling, and perhaps a story that everyone in the room participates in telling, in an improvisational fashion.

8. Ingrid and I both felt the "Where are we now" piece of the symposium could be shortened to sound bites, so more time could be allowed for interactive excersizes. She suggested doing the section as if it were taking place in a "village of 100."

to be continued . . . .