Getting To Know You: Using A Roundtable To Start An Event
©2005 - 2006 Adrian Segar
Here’s a great way to start any workshop or conference with up to a hundred participants. Try a roundtable. Here’s how:
- Set up a circle of chairs, one for each attendee.
- When everyone’s seated, go around the circle and have each person answer these questions:
o How did I get here? [1]
o What would I like to have happen?[2]
o What experience do I have that others may find useful?
- Use a timekeeper to keep people to less than a minute or two, and have a couple of scribes noting topics and themes on flip charts.
An early roundtable does three things well:
- It provides everyone with the opportunity to safely share their connections to the workshop or conference topic as well as their relevant experience.
- It gives each attendee valuable information on other attendees, making it easy to start fruitful conversations.
- It reveals common topics of interest, which can then be explored during the event.
I have been using roundtables for fifteen years, and find that they quickly provide a group sense of connection and involvement. To my surprise I found, from evaluations, that people consistently rate roundtables more useful than an event’s pre-planned sessions.
If you are interested in using a roundtable, here are some additional tips:
- Encourage everyone at your event to attend the roundtable.
- If possible, avoid multiple circles or irregular seating arrangements. In a circle, everyone can see the person who is speaking. Other seating arrangements are less intimate.
- Give your timekeeper a signaling device, like a chime, to indicate “time’s up”.
- Allow at least a minute for each person to speak. For forty people or less, allow two minutes. For seventy people or less allow ninety seconds. A short five minute break in the middle can be helpful, but is not necessary.
- Consider providing a thirty second warning if you fear people will ramble.
- Wall mount copies of the three questions on flip chart paper around the circle to help keep answers focused.
- Take the scribed topic lists and display them where people will mingle during the rest of your event.
Try a roundtable at your next event and see how it works for you. I’d love to hear about your experience.
Adrian Segar adrian@segar.com
Learn more about Adrian and the AYE Conference at
http://www.ayeconference.com/wiki/scribble.cgi?read=AdrianSegar
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