FlowStyleCongress-Design

Principles and instructions for people involved in the implementation.

1. The purpose of a FlowStyle Congress is to exploit the potential and synergies of the present participants as much as possible.
2. Participants with similar interests must actually connect with one another.
3. It is important that participants are aware and realize from the very start that they are attending a very extraordinary and unusual congress.
4. All the participants are almost constantly active. They discuss, write notes on post-its or on flipcharts, stroll through the congress room, and 'open' new flipcharts with emerging new topics.
5. Information input takes place only in writing: in form of reports, literature, and folders. Topics that are discussed are presented by thesis and activating questions on flipcharts.
6. Absolutely no lectures are to be held during the entire FlowStyle Congress.
7. Experts bring their input/contributions in form of thesis (possibly provocative) or activating question. These are questions that begin with the word "What…. ", e.g., what are the effects of …, what points should we particularly considered in the execution of…. Only after the participants have elaborated all theses questions should the experts provide additional comments.
8. The congress takes place in an information market style. Different topics are set up in information booths which have approximately 2.5 flip chart sheets (space requirements of at least 5 square meters per participant).
9. The short 'one-way instructions' last only a couple of minutes and certainly not more than a maximum of 10 minutes. This applies to all to organizational announcements, 'speed-presentations' at the booths at the beginning of the congress, and for 'speed presentations' of intermediate results in the plenum.
10. The participants work together with the FlowStyle Congress animators and the experts to produce concrete, tangible results, such as for example a flipchart with a thesis about the topic discussed. The participants receive these results in a processed, arranged, and organized form after the event and sometimes at the end of the congress.
11. High information quality is aimed at. This means the information is short, precise and visualized where possible. A flipchart sheet has a clear title and begins with a lead text that explains the topic.
12. Typically, really interesting topics emerge during the course of the FlowStyle Congress that nobody could have thought of that beforehand, and so surprise is to be expected .