2011 Agenda 

Forum Agenda

The third Oxford Futures Forum (OFF) took place at Egrove Park, University of Oxford, 18 - 19 April 2011.  The theme for this Forum was "Complexity and Scenarios"

Similar to the two Oxford Futures Forums, which took place in October 2005 and April 2008 respectively, this third Forum aimed at enabling a generative dialogue, productive collaboration and deep reflection. It joined together two established communities of thought and practice - the complexity community and the scenario community.

The theme of the third Oxford Futures Forum was to explore the possible synergies and differences between work on complexity, mindfulness and the so-called 'intuitive logics' school in scenarios. See also this document "Scoping the Dialogue Space".

It consisted of a series of conversations among an invited group of people. Participants included practitioners and academics from around the world who are interested in considering how thinking about the future can be mobilised to enable complexity in and of organisations, as well as exploring how thinking the emerging field of prospective complexity can help reveal theory for futures practices, including scenario planning.

Securing a Place

The OFF 2011 was by invitation only.

Agenda and Format

• Up to 70 participants, by invitation only
• Two day event
• Open Space Format

The third Forum (similar to the first two) was designed in Open Space format, to enable generative dialogue. It is not the standard conference design of 'stand and deliver' sequentially. Consequently, the set of initial discussion topics were determined by the pre-Forum inputs submitted by invited participants. Subsequent discussion topics were collectively generated by the participants during the event.

The more formal part of the conversations during the Forum took place in three phases, each of 4 hours duration, in self-organising groups. Each phase started with an 'idea market' during which self-selected topic champions advertised their candidate subjects for discussion to the rest of the participants, with the aim of gathering between six and 18 participants for intense discussion on the agreed topic during that phase. As convenors, we suggested a first set of topics and assigned participants to them. A web-enabled system allowed participants to see each other's submissions to the Forum in advance, and based on this, to confirm or reconfigure these topic groups before the Forum begins.

In each phase, the topic champion took responsibility for getting the group to appoint a facilitator, a presenter and a reporter. The group then engaged in a conversation on the selected topic, and developed it to wherever the group decided to take it. This ranged from simply comparing notes on where everyone stands on the issue, to agreeing a line of action to take the topic forward in the next phase of the Forum and beyond. Time available for this conversation was 2 hours. The last hour of the phase was spent in plenary to listen to and comment on a summary of the conversation of each group. The reporter took responsibility for filing a short report on the highlights of the conversation. At the end of each phase, topic groups decide to disband or to continue their conversation during the next phase. If they disbanded, the members joined other topic groups as they were advertised by the champions during the idea market opening of the following phase. Individuals stick to the same topic during the next phase, or decide to join another conversation.

It was the intention for the whole process to be self-organising within a framework set by the convenors, with the conference organisers limiting themselves to conducting the process, keeping the 'contract' in this document alive, and managing logistics.

The Forum concluded with a two-hour plenary session during which participants took stock of where we have arrived, and agreed further actions to be undertaken until the next Oxford Futures Forum. In the intervening period the conveners will provide support for groups to stay in touch with each other (e.g., email lists, website), and discuss progress as it happens, online on the website.
The convenors requested all participants to take cognisance of what topics are exercising the minds of their Forum colleagues before arriving in Oxford. In addition participants were requested to consider whether they want to become champions of particular topics to be marketed during the Forum.

In addition the Forum organisers offered the possibility for participants to develop their 250-word summary into a full-length paper. This will allow those interested to develop the topic in detail, as a more developed starting point for the group conversation at the Forum. Following the Forum the organisers will consider the set of full papers submitted (subsequently adjusted by the authors in the light of the conversations). It is our intention to develop this material into a publication in the form of a special issue of a relevant journal or an edited book. The feasibility of publication depends essentially on what participants contribute. All summaries and papers will be put on a non-restricted website unless authors indicate they want their material restricted. This means that Forum participants and non-participants will be able to access this material. Hence, confidential material should not be included in the documents sent to the organisers. During the conversations at the Forum participants were asked to adhere to confidentiality rules. Following the Forum the convenors intend to report on the results in the public domain. At that stage an opportunity will be offered for participants to request modifications to protect the confidentiality of aspects of the conversation.

It is anticipated that the Forum will generate the following output:

• a number of working groups, developing emergent topics among themselves, where some will do so as preparation for the next iteration of the Oxford Futures Forum;
• an ongoing conversation among participants through the Oxford Futures Forum website;
• a variety of publications, in the form of a special journal issue or an edited book on the conversations during the Forum, consisting of papers submitted by participants;
• a programme of work for those working on futures related issues at Oxford based on research questions emerging from the conversation during the Forum.