My friends at the BBC had the neat idea of putting a time lapse camera in the room when I hosted an Open Space conference for them earlier this year. I've just uploaded it to YouTube. It compresses a whole day of conversations into 30 seconds.

You'll see folks arriving then forming the opening circle. It was a bit tight and you'll see the moment when we all decided to push our chairs back. There's some movement as the agenda is set. Then you'll see the break out conversations being formed over the rest of the day (a few folks disappear from shot bottom right). Finally there's a closing circle to process what was learnt - and then everyone goes home.

Of course the speed gives no notion of the relaxed pace of the real event, but I hope it conveys a little of how Open Space seems to allow folks to self-organise a satisfying day.

(Thanks to Lloyd Davis for guiding me through how to do this)