The first conversation from our #SLDThinkTank 2024 coverage explores the meeting design from two perspectives. Co-hosts Jeff Lazarus and Jörn Schattenberg discuss the overall design, after which participants Maja Thiele and Mike Betel share their reactions.
The conversation starts with Jeff providing background and rationale for the #SLDThinkTank 2024 design. He starts by referring back to an initial meeting in 2019 and the first two years of INCBCN (Season 4, Episodes 13, 23; Season 3, Episodes 18, 24). He then describes why he felt a small-group brainstorming approach might work better than the last two years of PowerPoint presentations and group questions. This agenda, which was designed to encourage dialogue that generated new answers to the largest questions in SLD, included five "hot topic" sections, two focused workshops and an innovative ideation concept called Open Spaces.

When Jeff finishes, Jörn describes how the highly innovative "Open Spaces" element actually worked in his section of the room.

Maja and Mike share their impressions of the meeting. Maja starts by praising the Open Space concept, which she describes as "especially fruitful" due to the diversity of attendees. After Mike seconds her comment about diversity, she goes on to describe what she did during Open Spaces. The rest of the group chimes in with points about the design.