European Salon – Synthetron Reflection

On Monday, Nov 30th, 2009, we have organised a Synthetron brainstorm to reflect on the European Salon. The participants of the Salon were invited to share their reflections on the Salon during a one hour online discussion.
Joanne Celens kindly and generously supported and organised this process. Thank you again, Joanne, in the name of all of us.
To me, the format was a very interesting experience. While you type in your answers to the questions, you have to rate the input of others. You remain anonymous. This process produces a lot of structured content in a short time. On the other hand, it does not seem to build relationships. I see Synthetron as a useful tool if you want to get the bigger picture of opinions and ways of thinking in a group as large as, well, 1000 participants? Maybe even more. In our discussion we have been 10.
Originally we had planned to use this process in the preparation of the Salon. Then time was too short and we decided to use it for reflecting the Salon together.

In this process I have been co-designing the questions for the »conversation«. During the conversation I was a participant.

Find the summary report of this social brainstorm attached. There is a part in the document with the discussion script. If you have been in Reichenau and want to reflect on the questions (and share your reflections), you're welcome to do it here. This would be more Café style, because we are not anonymous ...

One of the main outcomes for me from this reflection: Most of the people who have been involved in this reflection see the European Salon as an ongoing process and are willing to contribute to its unfolding.

While there is a willingness to keep the process moving, the next steps are not clear. This, to me, seems to call for a renewal of the hosting team so that the old team can come to a close and the new team can be given birth. But this will be another conversation.

Cheers, Ulrich