Wednesday I returned from 4 days in Slovenia, attending a conference/course/seminar on “The art of hosting”. Hosting is any activity, where you invite people to participate in a project, process, meeting, conversation etc. Being a host has some common characteristics, regardless of the type of activity or the people attending, and we explored the techniques, principles and values of good hosting.
Category: Speaking
My speaking gigs
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Cool name wanted
In a couple of days time, I’ll be starting my new company. The company will work with happiness at work, with new ways of working and meeting. All the things I’ve been reading about, thinking about and talking about for a year now.
But the company needs a name, and that’s where I need your help. Write a comment and suggest a name. The winner will get an honourable mention here on the site.
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Storytelling, visualization and happiness at work
I’m arranging a seminar on storytelling, visualization and happiness at work. It will take place in the new Arena space in N?rrebrogade 14 B in Copenhagen on friday the 25th of april from 16:00 to 18:00. We’ll start with an introduction to storytelling by Henrik Kristensen, an introduction to visualization by Ole Qvist-S?rensen and I’ll talk briefly about happiness at work. Then we’ll invite everybody to discuss the topics, and how they interrelate.
Participation is free, but you need to sign up by sending me an email at alexander@kjerulf.com.
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More Open space
Last friday I helped Lars Pind run his OpenACS conference. He’d decided to do it as an Open Space meeting, And since he did all of this for free, for the benefit of the OpenACS community, I decided to offer my assistance. It looked like everybody had a great time, and a lot of work certainly got done. You can read all about it here, including the details of what may be the first party ever, to have a piano delivered in the middle of it.
And monday I helped Carsten Ohm arrange a meeting for entrepreneurs in Nørrebro and creative people from IKI. The meeting was a mix of impro theater and Open Space, and it worked beautifully. So chalk up two more points for Open Space. The record still stands: Every Open Space meeting I’ve ever experienced has been a success.
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Generosity in action
My good friend Lars Pind runs a company, Collaboraid, which embodies generosity in a number of ways. They develop e-learning software based on an open source platform, which is generous in itself, since they spend time and energy not only on creating solutions for their customers (among which you’ll find MIT, Heidelberg University and Greenpeace), but also on improving the platform itself.
And now they’ve taken it a step further, and have arranged a two-day conference about the technological platform for anyone who’s interested, and people are coming from all over the world. Cost of participation: Zero! They spend a lot of time arranging this event but won’t make a single buck on it. They do it simply for the sake of the community, and because they think it will be fun.
What does it signify, when a company does something this generous?
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Open Space week
It’s always a joy seeing Open Space meetings, and this week I’ve been part of two VERY different ones. First, last wednesday I helped organize a workshop for 25 teenagers from the worst part of Copenhagen. We’re talking 25 kids aged 12-18, with completely different attitudes and backgrounds.
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