At this year’s CodeMash I spent most of my time in the open spaces sessions. I’ve been through a couple open spaces now and while I really enjoy them, I’ve noticed a trend: the same people tend to lead and control the conversations.

I’m not saying this is good or bad, just that it’s an observation. For instance, I was in many open spaces that were also attended by people I already talk to quite often, so I already know their opinions and stances on things. But what happens, and I’m in this mix as well, is that these people tend to dominate the conversation.

It’s by no means intentional, and dominate is probably too strong of a word for it, but it’s clear the conversation tends to be driven by these people (again, myself included). Oh sure, plenty of others joined in, but there were several occasions where you can plainly see who’s leading and who’s just tagging along.

This got me thinking that maybe this is just the nature of the beast for open spaces. There are many strong-minded people that participate in open spaces, and they all have something to say. But it makes me wonder if that is sort of a turn off for everyone else. It’s easy to see how someone who’s more of an introvert would sit in the circle but not contribute to the conversation.

I get the open spaces mantra and I’m drawn to it for those reasons, but as someone who’s genuinely interested in other people’s perspectives, I find it slightly disappointing to hear many of the same things over and over from the same people. At some point it becomes almost like a constant echo chamber, and at that point its value decreases.

Like I said, I’m not absolved from what I’m talking about and this is simply an observation. But I would like to know what you think, especially from those who have attended open space sessions. Have you had these same experiences?

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