Idea Bounce
What is it for?
Individuals in a group offer to host short sessions around topics of their choice.
Time & People
15 – 50 people
Ideal: around 30
Materials
Pitch space
Source
thiagi.com
Description
Set up
• Create a grid on the wall or white board identifying the
session times and number of concurrent sessions. This will depend on how much time you have, the number of people in the room, and the spaces you have available. See grid below for a one-hour session. Allow 5 minutes for pitching. This activity works best when people can all stay in the same space.
• Create a ‘Pitch Space’ on the floor with masking tape, a rectangular space about 1m x 1m that people stand in to pitch their session (do not skip this, it’s an integral part of the process – ensuring that people ‘step up’ to the pitch space to make an offer).
• Explain that there are three sessions of 15 minutes each, and four spaces. The aim is to fill the grid with offers – with topics YOU want to talk about. You don’t have to be an expert, you just want to have an opportunity to raise the topic and discuss it with others who might also be interested.
• Invite people to come to the pitch space and pitch their topic
• As they are pitching write their name in one of the empty grid spaces and a short title. You may need to stop them actually talking about the topic in the pitch, ask them to give an idea of what the topic is about. Don’t let people write their own topic. Too slow.
• Call for the next person. Keep going until the grid is full.
• Sometimes people will be hesitant. Keep encouraging them.
• Once the grid is full tell them their only responsibility is to be at the space and time indicated if they are hosting, and to decide where they want to be if not. Come back as a whole group at the end.
• Because of the short sessions, it’s useful to ring a bell when time is up