2019-10-28, 11:10–11:20 (UTC), Ballroom
Open Spaces are literally what the Devopsdays conference series was founded on. They are a key element of the Devopsdays experience, but their execution is inconsistent—often due to misconceptions about what they are and how to run them. To wit: let's talk about what works (and what doesn't), and help to bring Open Spaces back to the brand, globally.
Let's get this out of the way: 1. open spaces aren't for everybody, and 2. really big events have scaling issues. Fine. Now let's get to the important part: how to encourage and ultimately run successful open spaces at Devopsdays events. It all starts with good communication and interest-building both prior to the event itself, as well as at the event (but prior to the spaces). Then, when it's open space time, a good introduction is paramount, including fun activities and idea seeding. During the open spaces, having "moderators" to move the conversation forward and—crucially—encourage lesser-heard voices, is key. Finally, a round-up afterwards on day one is helpful to help encourage participation on day two.
Daniel is a Devopsdays global core organiser, Ubisoft and Mozilla alumnus, and DevRel at Datadog.