Grassroots Grantmakers’ 2014 On the Ground in Cleveland will include an open space Learning Marketplace on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons populated with topics that you and other participants bring forward and lead to:
- Share your practice (such as a share your creative approach for using storytelling to generate great final reports) ;
- Get help from your peers (for example, you can ask for feedback on a plan you are hatching);
- Explore a shared question (perhaps using this time to dig into a question that arises during a morning module) ;
- Expand your networks (for example, if you’re a funder newbie, inviting other newbies to join you for a conversation);
- Recharge your batteries (in whatever way that works for you – even if that means an hour or so “off topic” with some new or old friends).
The menu of options for the Learning Marketplace will be co-created Monday afternoon at our opening session, and expanded throughout as new topics and questions surface from our time together. Bring topics and questions you are passionate about and step forward to claim a space (from as little as 1 hour to as much as 6 hours over 2 days) on the agenda. All ideas are welcome – from something that takes people out and about to digging deeper discussions to a workshop that’s designed to demonstrate and teach a practice.
The Marketplace invites your contributions and you to invent your own learning agenda to flourish.
Open space is my favorite format for learning events. There is an excitement and opportunity for innovation created when the participants get to craft the agenda based on what is on their minds at that particular moment. Because the assumption is that we are all learners and we are all teachers, Open Space gives us an opportunity to model that and create opportunities for folks to step forward who may not normally be tapped to present at a conference. Some of my biggest ah-ha moments have come in Open Space sessions.
Caitlin Childs, Organizing Director, Real Commuities Initiative
Georgia Council for Developmental Disabilities
