Art of Hosting Techniques

Circle
http://www.peerspirit.com/
An ancient technique that has gathered human beings in conversations that fulfill their potential for respectful dialogue, replenishment, and wisdom-based change. Participants literally sit in a circle, around a center piece, and take turns speaking one at a time. (Baldwin & Linnea, 2010).

World Cafe
http://www.theworldcafe.com/
A method for creating a living network of collaborative dialogue around questions through a series of rotating table conversations. (Brown & Isaacs, 2005)

Open Space Technology
http://www.openspaceworld.org/
A meeting process in which the agenda is created by the participants. Those who have a passion and commitment call sessions to explore questions or issues with others. They become the hosts of their sessions. The other participants decide with their feet where they will participate. (Owen, 1997)

ProAction Café
A method for creative and action-oriented conversation where participants are invited to bring their project or ideas in which they need help to manifest in the world. ProAction Café is a blend of World Café and Open Space technologies.

Collective Story Harvesting & Reflective Listening
http://www.compassionatelistening.org/
A practice that involves tracking multiple arcs of a single story simultaneously to practice targeted listening and group learning, while reflecting back to the storyteller themes underlying the story that they might have not recognized previously. One format of this technique is reflective listening in which groups of four rotate storytelling and 3 listening roles: listening for facts, listening for feelings and listening for values.