Now people are chattering and scribbling on their notepads and others are walking around the room to grab a coffee or alight in a new group, and notes-takers enter the proceedings into a bank of computers then float back into another session. The day passes with everyone moving from issue to issue and idea to idea and the proceedings from each meeting are posted on the wall for everyone to read throughout the day. It looks like chaos - that is, if you are used to quiet meetings around conference tables. But if you look again, you see a teeming hub of activity, animated discussion, scribbling out of ideas and, even considering the urgency of the issue...laughter.

They continue talking over coffee. They continue over lunch. They are animated and passionate and people are communicating with each other in ways that break through the barriers they carried with them. Before they leave the group identifies actions and sets timelines and individuals offer themselves as point-persons for the work that must be done after this event. And a huge amount of work gets done in a very little amount of time. Two days covers more issues and solutions than six months worth of task forces or committees could ever do. As they gather in a closing circle for reflections, observation and insights on their time together, they don't say, "Boy, she was a great facilitator." They say, "Look what we accomplished together!"

Open Space originated because Harrison Owen designed and planned a conference, and when it took place he noticed that all the best work was done during the coffee breaks. All the networking, deal-making, visioning, and collaboration. All the new ideas and new products and new programs came from small circles of people chatting over similar passions and interests. Just as it happens in life. So for the next conference he designed a process that would be all coffee-break energy, all the time. Thus Open Space Technology was born