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Our Advanced
Strategy Center had developed some very unique and leveraged
implementations of the Advanced Strategy Lab over the years,
including one that we call Conference Style. Conference
Style sessions allow us to increase the number of active
users in a facilitated electronic brainstorming session by
allowing teams or groups to share laptop systems, enabling us
to support larger meeting or conference settings of 50 to 250
participants.
The critical
concept that allows the larger number of participants to
effectively interact is something we call dual
collaboration.
That is, we have a high level of dialogue and discussion
within a group or set of participants at a table, and the
direct connection among all of the tables or groups by virtue
of our local area network connections. This is truly the
best of both worlds, and it creates a tremendous amount of
energy around strategic topics that are part of the session.
Typical conference style scenarios include:
- PARTNER
SESSIONS: This is a 1:2 ratio (one laptop for
two participants) and allows us to take our base mobile
lap and support 40-50 participants. The two person
team talks about key questions, collaborates on votes (as
in finding common ground and consensus) and can respond to
electronic surveys as a team or individually;
- TRIAD
WORKGROUPS: This is where we really begin to
see an increase in the size of groups. Here we are
working in ‘triads’ or teams of three. The
center person has the laptop, with a team member to
his/her left and right. In this setting or
configuration, we are running groups of 60 to 90 and the
groups can be in long contiguous tables or roundtables with 6
participants and two laptops per round
table. This begins to moves us into a true
conference setting;
- CONFERENCE
ROUNDTABLES: Conference roundtables are a
ratio of 1:3, 1:5, 1:7 or even 1:9. Here we are
placing a single laptop to be shared by a set of
participants at the table. While we typically have
5-7 participants at the table, we have run sessions with 9
participants. With 5-7 at a table, we can support
groups from 100 to 200 very comfortably. Technical
production becomes important as we are typically
projecting onto large screens, using lavaliere mikes for
facilitation, and typically in a high quality hotel or
conference setting.
Conference
Style Session in Phoenix, Arizona
"Good input from a wide range of viewpoints,
Free exchange of ideas and hearing what everyone else
is thinking; Great way to quickly respond to questions
and issues; Good method of obtaining feedback from
a large group, real good dialog around the
table." (Grant
Thorton Annual Partners Meeting participants). |
"Immediate and interactive feedback...showed
everybody has the same issues. Able to say what we
wanted...great discussions-more than brainstorms. We
flushed out a lot of issues and developed good ideas.
It was a great forum to brainstorm ideas without pressure.
Ideas flowed freely." (USA Today Production Executives
Conference participants). |
"Very interactive at the table and with
other tables. Ability to rank most important aspects
of issues in the industry. Instant feeback and communication...Group
interaction, collaboration of like minded soul. Unique
& different." (Tag and Label Institute Industry Conference
participants). |
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