A conference where participants set the agenda

Scrum Event 2026

Scrum Event, De Fabrique Utrecht, 19 November 2026. Around a hundred and fifty Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Developers and Agile Coaches. A keynote opens the day, the Open Space fills the middle with three rounds of breakout sessions, a live show closes. Facilitated together with the Agile Scrum Group team. Programme

This is the hybrid format at full scale: a fixed opening and closing, with an agenda the room builds itself in between.

For event organisers

• You are organising a professional conference or community event for 30–150 people
• You want participants to leave with real connections and concrete insights, not just a full notebook
• You are willing to let go of control over the content and trust the expertise in the room
• You want a format that adapts to what is alive in the group, not what you planned in advance

Previously facilitated

A selection, with my role at each:

• Lean Startup Summit: Amsterdam, 20–21 March 2018, ~200 in the Open Space, co-facilitator of specific sessions
• LeSS conference: Amsterdam, 9–10 October 2025, ~100 participants, co-organiser, the board was full within ten minutes
• XP Days Benelux 2021: 25 November 2021, online on QiqoChat, ~100 participants, co-organiser and co-facilitator
• VERA Community Day: Halle, 5 December 2024, ~60 to 70 participants, facilitator of the Open Space within the day programme
• Liberating Structures Global Gathering: Brussels, 19–20 June 2025, ~60 participants, and Eindhoven, 11–12 June 2026, ~20 participants, co-organiser and facilitator
• LeanCamp: Brussels, 2017, ~50 participants, organiser and facilitator

Group sizes 20 to 200+. Dutch and English.

What makes Open Space different from a traditional conference?

At a traditional conference, the agenda is fixed. Speakers are booked, time slots are allocated, and participants are audience members. The best conversations always happen in the coffee break.

With Open Space, the coffee break is the programme. Participants propose topics themselves, choose which sessions to attend, and move freely based on where they learn or contribute most. The facilitator holds the process, not the content.

The result: higher engagement, better conversations, and concrete agreements owned by the people who made them.

What brings an Open Space to life

An Open Space conference does not live through its programme, because there is none. It lives through two things you settle beforehand:

• The burning question: one your participants are already carrying, so they come to contribute.
• The givens: what is fixed, what is not up for discussion, where the boundaries lie.

People who know them dare to use the space and take initiative themselves.

I organised LeanCamp (2017) myself, and XP Days Benelux 2021 and two Liberating Structures Gatherings together with others. As an organiser, I help you sharpen that question and those givens, and the invitation that follows. If you as the organiser are not the sponsor of the question yourself, make clear beforehand who is: the sponsor has to stand behind the question and the invitation. More on the formats this can take: Open Space formats.

How does a conference day work?

See the approach page for a full anatomy of an Open Space day, from opening to harvesting.

Formats

• Pure Open Space: fully self-organising, one or two days
• Hybrid format: keynote or opening, then Open Space.
• Liberating Structures within sessions: activating microstructures such as Impromptu Networking as an opener or connector between blocks

Not sure whether Open Space fits your event? See the choosing guide.

From day to agreement

An Open Space produces a harvest, not a decision. When the Open Space runs over several days, the first commitments already land in the closing circle (see the FAQ below for how that works). Who decides after the day, how, and by when, is something I settle with the client during preparation. How that plays out in practice: the approach.

If the form itself does not fit, read when I advise against Open Space.

More on the preparation: the invitation is the design.

Frequently asked questions

What is an unconference?

An unconference is a conference where participants set the agenda themselves, rather than following a pre-determined programme with invited speakers. Open Space Technology is the most widely used format for unconferences. Participants propose topics at the start of the day, choose which sessions to attend, and move freely based on interest. Well-known examples include BarCamp, LeanCamp and Open Space conferences.

How large does a group need to be for an Open Space conference?

An Open Space conference works best with groups of 30 to 150 participants, though groups of 20 to 500+ are also possible. The minimum is around 15–20 people, since parallel sessions require sufficient participants. The LeSS conference in Amsterdam had ~100 participants, the LeanCamp edition in Brussels ~50.

What does Open Space facilitation cost?

I work with a day rate plus the preparation the challenge requires. With Open Space that preparation carries weight: the central question, the participant group, and the agreement about what happens after the day determine whether it works. Total cost depends on group size, number of days, venue and follow-up. You receive a quote after the thirty-minute exploratory conversation.

Can Open Space work online?

Yes, Open Space Technology works online. With Zoom, using breakout rooms where participants choose for themselves which room to join, and a digital whiteboard (Miro) as the marketplace, a full Open Space experience is possible online. Choosing for yourself is the condition: that is how the Law of Mobility works online too. The dynamic is different from in-person, but the core principle (participants set the agenda themselves) remains fully intact.

Do an opening circle and a closing circle belong in an Open Space?

In a traditional, pure Open Space they do: the opening circle and the closing circle are part of it, and I strongly recommend them. In the opening, everyone sits in one circle, the facilitator opens the space and the agenda emerges on the marketplace. In the closing circle, the group comes back together, says what happened and which commitments were made. Many unconferences skip both and start straight with a session board. That works, but you miss the moment the group sees itself, and the moment what was discussed actually lands.

What is the evening news?

In an Open Space of several days, the group gathers in the circle at the end of each day for the evening news. Whoever wants to shares briefly what stood out that day or what happened in a session. There is no report and no presentation. Together with the morning announcements at the start of each day, it keeps the whole group connected, even though everyone was in different sessions.

How do I explain to participants what Open Space actually is and why it is useful?

Put the question at the centre, rather than the method. People come for a question that matters to them, rarely for a format. Tell them they set the sessions themselves, and that they get the conversations that stay in the corridors at a classic conference. I am happy to help with that explanation in your announcement, and with the urgent question at its heart.

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