The Colleagues represent a group of people who have consented to work together in the development of Open Space related programs with Harrison Owen. Over the past several years, these programs have been offered dozens of times all over the world, and as our experience has increased, so also have the programs evolved and improved. It began in a very traditional mode, with lots of lectures. It is now basically all Open Space! In addition many of the Colleagues have chosen to offer programs of their own design. Wonderful!

Larry Peterson

Larry brings 30 years of experience in facilitating meetings and transformational change in Canada and the US. He has been facilitating Open Space Technology meetings since 1990. He has led over 140 Open Space events ranging in scale from 600 to 6. He is a founder of the Open Space Institute of Canada and active in the WorldWide Open Space network. He has led many Open Space events at conferences such as The Governor General's Study Conference 2000, the Learning Consortium's "Safe Schools", CQI Network's "Putting People First in Health Care" and the Kivalliq Community Justice Conference, Territory of Nunavut. He has led or co-led 12 training programs for Open Space facilitators.

Since 1990, Anne Stadler has worked with people and groups that seek to open space for the emergence of spirited leadership and appropriate forms for their collective activity. She has over a decade of experience in guiding the formation of emergent organizations: as a founder and principal organizer of Spirited Work, an Open Space learning community of practice, linking conscious evolution with practical action. She is a pioneer and fluent practitioner of Open Space Technology and Appreciative Inquiry as well as other forms that open space for practical co-creative activity. She has worked globally with a diversity of organizations, including corporations, educational institutions, arts organizations, non-profits and community groups.

She has seventeen years of experience as an award-winning television producer, generating documentaries and special programs that illuminated community issues and were produced in collaboration with community leaders. She also worked for 12 years as a founder and community organizer of a broadly based coalition to end war. She is also a co-founder of Friends of Third Place Commons, Peacetrees Vietnam, and Solidarity, a new effort to support Green Jobs for All.

She enjoys every minute of life with her family, friends, strangers and the natural world

Lisa Heft

Described sometimes as a "Boundary Rider", and often at the cutting edge of developments, Fr Brian Bainbridge has walked with a large number of groups developing change in their workplace, their company, and their world.

As a Catholic Priest, he has qualifications in philosophy, psychology, ethics, and theology. And he has the distinction of being the first Master of Business from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, with strong emphasis on organisation change.

After graduating in Management, his work in the mining industry in north-west Australia was ground-breaking in focusing on Supervisors and their part in bringing change into workplace productivity and industrial relations. He also produced several hundred hours of television, some of which was religious programming, and some of which probed the first training applications of interactive media.

Much of his work has been with other-than-Church organisations - private, government, corporate, and institutional, including a number of significant international assignments. He has also helped change the direction of several Dioceses inside and outside Australia, as well as the Australian Bishops Conference and a number of Religious Orders.

Brian has taught and teaches in universities in Australia and the United States, keeps close to thinking and research in group methodology, has strong contacts with Swedish thinking in these areas, and is always looking to change so as to make the future better.

He is widely known for his use of OPEN SPACE TECHNOLOGY group work, developed around the world by Harrison Owen of Washington, and is a leader of the Open Space Institute of Australia. Open Space facilitation helps groups find a way forward into new and better organisation life by co-operation and interaction rather than by competition and confrontation. And it helps release the spirit of growth and initiative that is always present in an organisation. In this way there is focus on the qualities and commitments which will characterise the organisation of the third millennium.

Harrison is President of H.H.Owen and Co. His academic background and training centered on the nature and function of myth, ritual and culture. In the middle '60s, he left academe to work with a variety of organizations including small West African villages, urban (American and African) community organizations, Peace Corps, Regional Medical Programs, National Institutes of Health, and Veterans Administration. Along the way he discovered that his study of myth, ritual and culture had direct application to these social systems. In 1979 he created H.H.Owen and Company in order to explore the culture of organizations in transformation as a theorist and practicing consultant. Harrison convened the First International Symposium on Organization Transformation, and is the originator of Open Space Technology. He is the author of Spirit: Transformation and Development in Organizations, Leadership Is, Riding the Tiger, Open Space Technology: A Users Guide (Second Edition. Berrett-Koehler), The Millennium Organization, Tales From Open Space (editor), Expanding Our Now: The Story of Open Space Technology (Berrett-Koehler), The Spirit of Leadership (Berrett-Koehler) and The Power of Spirit: How Organizations Transform (Berrett- Koehler).

Diane Gibeault

Diane Gibeault is a bilingual consultant with over 30 years of experience in group facilitation, organizational change, training and management, both with government and non-governmental organizations. She is a Certified Professional Facilitator™. with the International Association of Facilitators.

Diane specializes in participative and innovative approaches for large group interventions that enhance communication and create enthusiasm and commitment for successful implementation of desired results (e.g. Open Space Technology). Her interventions include recreating teams after mergers, facilitating public consultations, workshops on transformation in organizations and developing change management leadership. For more information see www.dianegibeault.com or contact Diane at diane.gibeault@rogers.com

Chris Corrigan

Chris Corrigan was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. He is mixed ancestry, Irish, Scottish Manx and Ojibway.He received a B.A. (Honours) in Native Studies and Native Management from Trent University in 1991.

In 1999, following a three year stint with the federal government, Chris returned to his consulting practice, which focuses primarily on facilitation and consultation, working primarily with First Nations communities and organizations. His Open Space Technology meetings are known for bringing high energy, profound learning, respect and empowerment to large groups of diverse participants who are struggling with complex issues. He is particularly interested in how Open Space Technology uses traditional Aboriginal values and processes.

Email Chris Corrigan <chris@chriscorrigan.com>

Audrey Coward

Audrey Coward has over 25 years of experience as a Educator, Operations Director, Human Resources Professional and Organizational Consultant. She has been facilitating Open Space events since 1993 when she began her consulting practice. Her enthusiasm for the process is contagious. Audrey endeavours to live in Open Space and is often surprised at the results. She approaches her work as a teacher and learner. She enjoys being mentored, mentoring others and the challenges that Open Space brings. Audrey is an active member of the Open Space Institute of Canada.

Email audreycoward@bellnet.ca

Gail West

Gail West has spent the last 28 years in human development projects in communities within companies, government organizations and not-for-profit groups in Asia, Europe and the US. As staff of the ICA, a global human development network organization centered in Brussels, Belgium, she has lived in the USA, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and is now resident in Taiwan.

She has been instrumental in contributing to ICA's "Technology of Participation", and has for the last several years been in intensive collaborative experimental alliances to introduce community building, Open Space Technology and "individual potential" technologies in Asia, integrating them into a transformational format for organizations

Gail specializes in design, facilitation and documentation of programs and personal development to enable organizations to recreate their systems, leadership skills, culture and working environment in order to become Learning Organizations, acting as trainer, project leader, administrator and mentor to business, government and community leaders. Twenty-four years in Asia with the ICA have included long-term consultancies with people at all organizational levels as well as community people in multi-cultural environments. Several years were spent as residential co-director of Human Development Projects in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Email icataiw@ficnet.net

Suzanne Maxwell

Suzanne's work focuses helping leaders lead between the lines. Leading between the lines is about supplying leadership with tools that go beyond the classics of strategic planning and teambuilding and reach into the realm of harnessing the chaotic power of these changing times. Suzanne says, "If leadership's role is create conditions for success within the organization, leaders must address not only the tangible and the linear, eg, 'the lines', but also the intangible and non-linear, 'between the lines'. Most of us didn't learn how to manage the non-linear in our education, but we face the effects of not knowing how to manage it every day. When we learn how to effectively work with the non-linear AND the linear we promote sustainability and betterment of our organizations and businesses, our communities, our lives."

She is the owner of a consulting practice, Maxwell & Associates, is a
principal in ProcessWorks, a consulting and facilitation group, serves as
adjunct faculty to the Center for Creative Leadership, and is on the Board of Advisors for the White River Institute. Suzanne has worked for 20 years as a facilitator and consultant in Fortune 50 businesses, as well as public and private organizations of all sizes. Open Space Technology is one of the tools that Suzanne uses as a non-hierarchical means for unleashing organizational or community-wide creativity and change.

Email MaxAssoc@aol.com

Katrina Petri

Katrina Petri, a German medical doctor and psychotherapist, is the founder of Con•Cord•Consulting, dedicated to helping organizations increase their efficiency and productivity through the ability of self-organization and through individual and collective creativity and learning.

Katrina enables her clients to develop a deeper understanding of the whole system, and to engage in the journey of personal and organizational transformation.

Her work is based on depth of insight as well as focused on action by helping the client to create a learning culture, high performing collaborative teams and new leadership styles. Central to her work is the involvement of the whole system through Open Space Technology, which she introduced in Germany together with Harrison Owen, Whole Scale Change and Future Search.

To her work Katrina brings integrity, conviction, courage and commitment. In addition, she brings her bicultural experience and wisdom including fluency in German and English. She returned to Germany in 1995 after three years in Portland, Oregon, and four years in Boston, Massachusetts.

Katrina led the Microsoft Germany Company Meeting 2000 with 1200 participants. She teaches the Executive MBA Course on Organizational Behavior at the European Business College in Munich. She works with Health Care Systems, City Administrations, Communities and NGOs.

Email Katrina@Petri.com

Website www.openspace.de

Tova Averbuch

Tova has been an Organization and Management consultant as well as group facilitator, in Israel, since 1978. She works with the main industries in Israel, the IDF, the academia and municipalities. With academic background of social work (BSW) and organizational behavior (MSc.) she is especially committed to both the wellness and effectiveness of people in organizational settings as well as the wellness and effectiveness of the organizational system itself.

Born in Poland, living in Israel since 1957, resided in the US for two periods of two years (Rochester NY, Rockville, MD) she carries a special interest in the creative dialogue and relationship between ‘center’ and ‘edge’ of human systems.

Was taken by the Open Space Technology as a deep democratic tool, shining with it’s full transparency and energy, promoting creativity and life in organizations and individuals who are moved and enabled to find their voice in a crowd.

Email averbuch@post.tau.ac.il

Gerard Muller

Gerard Muller is a Dutch Management Consultant now living in Denmark. He has some twenty years of experience in facilitating change processes in a variety of organisations, and has completed assignments in more than 25 countries. Integration processes after mergers and acquisitions, changing corporate culture, and creating networks and collaboration in systems with joint problems/opportunities are his main focus. Coaching leaders, developing (virtual) management teams and facilitating large group interventions are some of the key tools. After it quickly (in 1998) became apparent that Open Space Technology had a bright future in Denmark, Gerard founded the Open Space Institute Denmark and has meanwhile lost count of the number of OS events. After a long period working mainly with hospitals, in Denmark most of Gerard’s clients are in food production/processing. Internationally some of his clients are Price Waterhouse Coopers, Shell, Dow Chemical, Eli Lilly, AKZO-Nobel, and occasionally organisations without money but with good people.

Doing assignments in unlikely places and encountering rich but very different cultures while traveling the South Pacific he has learnt to use stories, drama and the like, and is prepared to be surprised again. He is a member of Hepta, a European Management Consultancy Group, and represents Denmark in the International Organisation Development Association (IODA). Gerard works in Danish, Dutch, English and German.

Email gm@openspace.dk

Jacqueline Pelletier

Karen J. Davis, a consultant with organizations nationally and internationally for over thirty years, is committed to enhancing the health, effectiveness, and joy of human systems. Her clients include private and public sectors, non-governmental, and non-profit organizations.

Karen is dedicated to building the organization development (OD) global community by working and learning with OD colleagues throughout the world. She is on the faculty of the Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago de Chile and is co-founder of its graduate program in Organizational Behavior and Development. For ten years she was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Organization Development Network. She is active in the International Organization Development Association and is on the advisory board of the Latin American Organization Development Association.

Karen serves on the board of a large health maintenance organization as well as on the boards of various community and cultural organizations in New York City.

Karen has been involved with Open Space since before its naming. When not traveling or working around the world, she lives in New York City, returning regularly to her native Arizona. Summers, she is on her farm in Quebec, Canada with her virtual office.

Karen describes herself as a "global citizen and gardener." The earth is her playground and lifelong teacher.

Ralph focuses on closer connections between people’s ideals and their work life. He helps apply the motivation behind dreams directly to responsibilities. His clients have included communities, nonprofits (environmental, human services, education, healthcare, and community coalitions), and a wide range of corporations (pharmaceutical firms, financial institutions, hospital systems, and many family-owned businesses). A consultant since 1979, Ralph previously held management positions in mental health and United Way organizations. He is expert in the use of future search and open space, both ideal for whole system and long-term planning challenges.

Devorah entered the world of work in the 1960s on a General Motors roller bearings assembly line. She is now managing director of consulting for Designing Business Strategies and Services and professor in Mercy College's Master of Science in Organization Leadership. Her work integrates her education in business fundamentals and long years of experience in best practices in mainsteam business with new paradigm business models. Devorah served on the Board of NYC Council of Churches and was a founding member of the Minority Task Force on Aids. She was named Businesswoman of the Year by the Negro Business and Professional Women’s Association. She and her English terrier, Happy, are now cheering her daughter Nili on in her first year at Columbia Business School.

Avner is an organizational psychologist, working since 1978 in promoting processes of change in organizations, businesses, government and NGO sectors. He has an MA in clinical and social psychology, and a BA in economics, from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A managing partner in `Tmurot`- a consulting firm, and Co-founder (with Tova Averbuch) of `Oganim`(anchors) a consulting network, Avner is also one of the founders and former chairman of `Besod-Siach` (The Enigma of Dialogue), a volunteer organization that promotes dialogue between groups in conflicts within the Israeli society. He uses the OST as a tool and a guideline for bringing people and organizations to their full potential, through using constantly their freedom of choice and influence.

Julianne specializes in facilitating Open Space Technology for meetings of 10 participants through to conferences of 200. A firm advocate of this process, Julianne "stumbled" across OST after she had been taught to apply the four guiding principles of Open Space to her life. Having done that for two years (and learning a whole new way to live!), she was told about Open Space by a friend. A professional conference organizer, Julianne was getting tired of "controlling" conferences, and this seemed to be a magical fit!

Based in Brisbane, Australia, Julianne works from a paradise location by the ocean and takes with her the peace and spirit of this place to each of her clients and to their gatherings. Julianne is very focused on ensuring the essence of Open Space lives through all of the work she does, and the results of each event speak for themselves… words such as magic, love, inspirational and great change have come from the mouths of participants at the closing of Open Space meetings Julianne has facilitated recently.

Michael Herman founded Michael Herman Associates in 1991, to connect the spirit, adventure and learning of wilderness travel and the bottom-line, get-it-done realities of running a business.

His formal training is in Economics, Finance and Healthcare Administration, at Indiana University and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Prior to starting his own business, he worked as a financial consultant to hospitals and led "team building" programs for Outward Bound USA. His fascintation with Open Space stems from its capacity for "organization building" as ongoing and everyday business practice.

In recent years, he has facilitated Open Space meetings for BP/Amoco, Lucent Technologies, DVI Business Credit, Imagine Chicago, Education Queensland, the Chicago Community Trust, the Chicago End-of-Life-Care Coalition, and a number of other youth, corporate, community and government organizations, in the US and beyond. He has led OST training and practice workshops and helped create local OST practice groups in Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Nepal, Ireland, Australia and the US.

He is the founding webmaster for the Worldwide Open Space community website at www.openspaceworld.org and an innovative contributor to the worldwide practice of Open Space. He makes his home and headquarters in Chicago, Illinois USA.

Brendan McKeague

For the past twenty-five years Brendan has been a facilitator, educator, change agent and peacemaker. He has worked in Ireland, England and Australia and now resides in Perth, Western Australia. He is a member of Pace E Bene ( Peace and All Good ), an international Franciscan Service in Nonviolence ( www.paceebene.org ) based in Las Vegas, Nevada and a Senior Associate with Professional Training and Consulting Services ( www.pts.net.au ) in Perth. Brendan trained in Open Space facilitation with Birgitt Williams and Michael Herman and is a member of the Open Space Institute of Australia.

Brendan's learning in Open Space has been enriched by his experiences with grassroots community groups, teachers, faith-based groups, prisoners, peace and social justice activists, trade unions, leaders and managers, government departments AND, most profoundly, from his life experience as a father of six children where the principles of OS have been amazingly insightful.

Over the years Brendan has collaborated in the planning and facilitation of retreats, meetings, conferences and gatherings of various kinds. He values collaboration and cooperation, creativity and humour, listening and co-learning as ways of assisting people and communities in the ongoing journey of growth and transition. The spirit and structure of Open Space provide the framework for much of Brendan's current facilitation practice through which he seeks to create space for connecting people with each other, with inspired outcomes and with peace.

Email: mckeague@iprimus.com.au

Peggy Holman supports organizations in becoming who they want to be. She strongly believes that human-friendly ways of working produce solid, sustainable results. When she found Open Space in 1994, it was the key to bringing that belief more fully into practice. She has been opening space for organizations ever since, for conferences, strategic planning, business applications and community building. She has written on the subject and is a co-founder of the Open Space Institute(US), an organization dedicated not just to the use of Open Space as a meeting technology, but to Open Space as a philosophy and practice for individual and collective living. Peggy is particularly known for bringing a blend of challenge and support that inspires people to think beyond their usual boundaries. She is proud that her book, The Change Handbook: Group Methods for Shaping the Future (Berrett-Koehler, 1999), co-edited with Tom Devane, has been so warmly received as an aid in transforming organizations.

Email peggy@opencirclecompany.com web site: www.opencirclecompany.com

John Engle has been working with others to transform the way international non-profits work since 1991. He lives in a small house in rural Marianman, Haiti. He is co-founder of Haiti-based Fondasyon Limyè Lavi, and its American partner organization, Beyond Borders (www.beyondborders.net). He is also co-founder of Wotalfa, a literacy initiative of Rotary Clubs of Haiti (www.rotaryliteracy-haiti.org).

For the past nine years he has been using Open Space Technology with networks and organizations throughout Haiti. He is also a practitioner of Touchstones (touchstones.org) which helps children and adults develop skills in dialog and tolerance. He serves on the board of directors of Open Space Institute (US) and, he is a "reservist" with Christian Peacemaker Teams (cpt.org), a faith-based organization working in areas around the world where there is unrest to deter violence. To learn more about his work go to: http://www.beyondborders.net/experiment.htm

Judi Richardson, B.Ed., M.A.

Using a variety of processes, I facilitate development within groups and organizations, inviting others to recognize their own inherent qualities and emerge them. Our clients say I work "magic" because the process is invisible to them, and the results seem like magic . . . major shifts in organizational energies resulting in more productive, efficient, effective organizational reality - teams that work together collaboratively, committed to each other's success, increasing performance and profitability. I utilize processes as an objective mirror to help our clients assess the current state, as a catalyst assisting them in defining and creating a compelling view of the future, and the courage to go for it. Open Space Technology is a natural as one of our processes!

Email www.ponoconsultants.com www.emergentfeminine.com

Thomas Herrmann

Since Thomas Herrmann "bumped into Open Space Technology" in 1998 he has made some major changes in his worklife/life. He started to develop the use of OST in the organization where he worked (County Labor Market Board). In 1999 he started his own business and chose the name Open Space Consulting. 1st of January 2000 he left his job to be a consultant full time. Since then Thomas is dedicated to contribute in the spreading of knowledge and skills around OST in Sweden and the world. He has been involved in several national and international conferences both as participant, organizer and faclilitator. In 2003 he was one of the main organizers of the 11th annual International OpenSpaceOnOpenSpace. Thomas is offering trainings on OST on regular basis.

Email thomas@openspaceconsulting.com

Website www.openspaceconsulting.com

Michael M Pannwitz

I have been a trainer, consultant, coach and supervisor in the field of community and labor organisation, organisational development and social planning processes since 1965 in India, the United States of America and Germany.

In 1996 I participated in an Open Space Technology Training led by Harrison Owen and Romy Shovelton at Roffey Park in England. Well, it pretty well changed my professional life and a couple of other things, too.

Since then I have facilitated 123 open space events in the public, nonprofit and private sector with about 13.000 participants. In 1997 I organized and led “my” first Open Space Training.

Since then I have been involved in 18 Trainings in Germany, Austria, Russia, Hungary, Denmark, Poland and the Ukraine with about 600 participants.

Over the years I have been involved in organizing regional (Berlin), national (yearly Learning Exchanges of german speaking facilitators) and worldwide (Open Space on Open Space in Berlin, 2000) gatherings and initiated a Listserve (German language Yahoo Group with presently 166 participants).

In Berlin I co-initiated Boscop, the Berlin open space cooperative, now a registered cooperative of 8 open space-facilitators. Boscop aims to support the professional and economic development of its members in the field of open space along with supporting the spread of open space in Europe and worldwide.

Since August of 2004 I offer the Open Space World Map with the help of many colleagues worldwide. As of April 2005 some 220 os-workers from 44 countries have included themselves in the map, have a look http://www.openspaceworldmap.org/

Email mmpanne@boscop.de

Jo Toepfer

Jo Toepfer has been working as a consultant in organizational transformation since 1995. He worked in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, CIS countries and Central Asia for a number of years. Since 2000 he was trained by Michael M Pannwitz and Gabriela Ender in Open Space facilitation and by Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff in the art of large group facilitation. Since then Jo Toepfer has facilitated Open Space gatherings in 15 countries with a wide variety of sponsors, occasions, number of participants and time of duration.

Jo Toepfer was also involved as a trainer in Open Space Training events in Russia, Hungary, Ukraine and Germany together with Michael M Pannwitz and Felicia Schulz. In addition, Jo Toepfer is member of the board of the ‘Berlin Open Space Cooperative’ and administrator of the ‘open space landscape’ - a data base in the world wide web that records open space events held in Berlin, Germany.

For more please visit www.joconsult.de

Gerardo de Luzenberger

Born and living in Italy, Gerardo has been a group facilitator since 1995. He works mainly for municipalities, research centres, local development agencies, helping groups and partnerships to find their way in planning and developing their projects – from urban regeneration to environmental programmes, from welfare to local development issues.

He is one of the founders of the Scuola Superiore di Facilitazione, the first initiative aiming at disseminating the culture of group facilitation in Italy. He also runs on regular basis training on group facilitation for different Universities and training centres.

Was taken by Open Space Technology as a tool for promoting creativity, effective involvement of stakeholders, the spirit of small and large groups, as well as a different perspective in relating to other people in his life.

For more information: www.deluz.it à xge@deluz.it

Funda Oral

Funda Oral has studied Business Administration and worked for several years in various companies in Turkey and Europe. She had always been looking for  ways to increase creativity, participation, efficiency, harmony and enthusiasm in working life and in team work. She came across Open Space Technology when she had started designing similar methods.

Since then she has been reading, thinking, talking, discussing about Open Space Technology. She works in organizing and facilitating of meetings with Open Space Technology. She also works as consultant for organizations to adapt Open Space Technology as a working system.

She prepared the open space technology web site in Turkish www.acikalanteknolojisi.com

For some examples of her work :  http://www.aatorganizasyon.blogspot.com/
Linda Stevenson
Linda Stevenson is passionate about intentionally using the simplicity of Open Space to allow an organization to adapt successfully to complex challenges. For 15 years she has been deliberately setting the conditions for the emergence of structures and behaviors neither planned nor predictable, but nevertheless appropriate, effective, and timely. Linda sees Open Space as "training wheels" to remember what we already know how to do and to begin to trust our capacity to do it. Originally from the Boston area, Linda is now living in Minneapolis and serves on the Board of Trustees of a local Zen center, Dharma Field.

Email: stevenson8899@msn.com