OST: An alternative conference method? (2)
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Thanks David for sharing this. I've been involved in meetings
with some of these components but not all. Would you agree that
some topics lead themselves to a "purer" version than others?
One purpose of attending meetings for technical people is to get
present (often an academic/donor requisite for attendance) and
learn about the findings of recent research. Perhaps such pres-
entations should be followed by OST sessions on what the impli-
cations of its findings might be for field application?
I may be playing a coordination role on a large international
meeting on the infant feeding component of PMTCT and would love
to incorporate some or all of OST--certainly brainstorming with
women living with the predicaments and difficulties involved
would be useful for all involved.
Is there someplace one can read more about OST? What's the larg-
est meeting you've been to that incorporated it? In a large
gathering isn't the initial session during which those 87 groups
are established and the issues they will deal with unwieldy and
time-consuming?
And how on earth can you rapidly schedule so many sessions with-
out having endless hassles over for example a convener who wants
a different time in order to attend another session s/he wants
to attend?!
Finally, in my experience it's very difficult to get technical
people to discuss like this rather than spend all the scarce
time available pontificating--how do you prevent that--just an
altered set of expectations and instructions to conveners to be
tough with big talkers?
Thanks again,
Ted Greiner
mailto:tedgreiner@yahoo.com