- Moving individuals to different groups

[Sally_Murfitt]

I am proposing a speed dating event for one of our internal
networking groups. Rather than do it head-to-head I would like to
organise 4 or 5 tables with 4 or 5 people on each. Each person an a
table gets 2 minutes to talk about themselves and then we move people
round to do the same for a different bunch. The idea is that I find it
difficult to network "cold" so giving people an opportunity to say hello
to everyone in a room might get them circulating later on.

The problem that is exercising me at the moment is how to ensure
all these people give their 2 minute introduction to everyone in the
room without duplication. So I need some mechanism for moving people on
from each table. At the moment, I am thinking that I will need a table
host to stay on each table and then . . . .

I can either leave it up to each individual NOT to sit at a
table where there is someone they've spoken to before (which I can see
could get a little complicated as the "round" go on

OR
use colours or numbers or both to move people to a different
table where they address a different group each time

But I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that it needs someone
more mathematical or more creative than I am!

If you have understood what I'm asking for - do you have any
suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Regards


Sally Murfitt CPF
Facilitator & Project Manager
HWK160 PO Box 400
LONDON N18 1XU
Tel : +44 1787 269994 Mob : +44 7710 055454
MeetMe number 0870 8506521
Passcode 81068195
"It is the province of knowledge to speak.
And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen."

[Andi_Roberts]

Hi Sally and all,

Just one simple idea

Take a box or two of domino's.

Give each person one.

Use different combination like:
"All those with one and two dots at the same table"
"A table that add up to no more than X"
"Doubles and non doubles interspaced on the table"

To get even more of a mixture, make sets out of different coloured cards and this gives you an added dimension, plus people can write on the back of the cards.

Hope this helps, Andi

Andi Roberts MBA
MasterFacilitator.com (http://www.masterfacilitator.com)

[Martin_Gilbraith]

Dear all, Savita Custead led just such a speed dating session for ICA:UK
recently so I asked her to share how she did it - she is not subscribed
to the form, but I copy her message below. She can be reached directly
at scustead@yahoo.com
Martin


Dear Sally and all --



A few years ago a colleague of mine tried to solve this same problem for
a group we are in of Science Communicators in the UK. After some work,
and talking to some mathematicians, he realised that he had hit on a
very famous un-solvable mathematical problem!



More details on Ben's website at:



http://bencraven.org.uk/demo_dating.html ('http://bencraven.org.uk/demo_dating.html')



Since then he has created a little computer programme where you can
enter the number of participants and it creates an individual path for
everyone -- as in, go to group A for 2 minutes, then group D for 2
minutes etc. As it is an unsolvable problem, the results aren't perfect
-- as in, you can't make it everyone meets everyone once with absolutely
no repeats but it still does exactly what you're after.



I brought the activity to the AGM of ICA:UK -- and it worked really
well! In practice it's completely straightforward and simple, really
fun, gets a real buzz and energy going in the room.



If you want to use the activity or get Ben to run your numbers through
his programme you can reach him at: ben@bencraven.org.uk
<mailto:ben@bencraven.org.uk>



Best wishes



Savita Custead

ICA:UK

scustead@yahoo.com



Sally_Murfitt wrote:
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CURRENT MESSAGE FROM: Sally_Murfitt

I am proposing a speed dating event for one of our internal
networking groups. Rather than do it head-to-head I would like to
organise 4 or 5 tables with 4 or 5 people on each. Each person an a
table gets 2 minutes to talk about themselves and then we move people
round to do the same for a different bunch. The idea is that I find it
difficult to network "cold" so giving people an opportunity to say hello
to everyone in a room might get them circulating later on.

The problem that is exercising me at the moment is how to ensure
all these people give their 2 minute introduction to everyone in the
room without duplication. So I need some mechanism for moving people on
from each table. At the moment, I am thinking that I will need a table
host to stay on each table and then . . . .

I can either leave it up to each individual NOT to sit at a
table where there is someone they've spoken to before (which I can see
could get a little complicated as the "round" go on

OR
use colours or numbers or both to move people to a different
table where they address a different group each time

But I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that it needs someone
more mathematical or more creative than I am!

If you have understood what I'm asking for - do you have any
suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Regards


Sally Murfitt CPF
Facilitator & Project Manager
HWK160 PO Box 400
LONDON N18 1XU
Tel : +44 1787 269994 Mob : +44 7710 055454
MeetMe number 0870 8506521
Passcode 81068195
"It is the province of knowledge to speak.
And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen."





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*Martin Gilbraith* <martin@ica-uk.org.uk <mailto:martin@ica-uk.org.uk>>

*Director, ICA:UK*
registered charity #1090745 & company limited by guarantee #3970365
registered in England & Wales, at 41 Old Birley Street, Manchester M15 5RF
tel/fax: 0845 450 0305 or 0161 232 8444 - _www.ica-uk.org.uk
<http://www.ica-uk.org.uk/>___ ('http://www.ica-uk.org.uk/>___')

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not-for-profit organisations in 30 countries
/"concerned with the human factor in world development"/

*IAF Certified Professional Facilitator* & IAF Board member for Europe
The International Association of Facilitators -- _www.iaf-world.org_

[Gary_Boettcher]

Sally,

Briefly, have an even number of tables. Have an even number of people at each table, i.e., six tables and four people at each table. Have groups at each table number themselves 1-4. The even numbers always stay seated. The ODD numbers move to the next table in a CW or CC motion every time. After six timed sessions, they have all spoken with each other.

Two minutes is a long time. At 4 people per table, six tables, that is 48 minutes of chatting plus the time to move from table to table.

Hope this idea is helpful.

[Scott_Simmerman]

Sally -

I re-read that post and just wondered... You said:

"I am proposing a speed dating event for one of our internal networking groups."

...and you really mean "speed dating?" It just seems like this is an area that most organizations find a bit difficult and one that many managers would feel causes nothing but problems with the "speed dates" become "speed hates" within the organization or workgroup.

I think Andi's ideas are good ones, and I think that someone faciltating this kind of thing is great. But I just wonder about any political fallout from your involvement in these highly emotional times with all this stuff happening to the economy and to people in organizations.

If I missed something through my casual reading of this, or just mis-interpreted, my apologies to all. Have FUN out there!

:eek:


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[Christopher_Haydock]

Hello Sally,

Your proposed multi-table speed dating event
raises some interesting art of facilitation issues.
To best approach these consider also the
following combinatorial facts.

After a predesigned number of rounds that shuffle
participants among tables in a precisely defined
pattern a perfect solution is such that during some
round and at some table each participant has met
with every other participant exactly once.

Perfect solutions are only possible for certain
combinations of table and group size. Assuming
that all tables seat the same number of people,
here are the first few possible group sizes for each
of the table sizes specified in column one.
(The required number of tables and rounds follow each
group size in parentheses.)

2/tb 4 (2 tb 3 rd) 6 (3 tb 5 rd) 8 (4 tb 7 rd) 10 (5
tb 9 rd)
3/tb 9 (3 tb 4 rd) 15 (5 tb 7 rd) 21 (7 tb 10 rd) 27 (9
tb 13 rd)
4/tb 16 (4 tb 5 rd) 28 (7 tb 9 rd) 40 (10 tb 13 rd) 52 (13
tb 17 rd)
5/tb 25 (5 tb 6 rd) 45 (9 tb 11 rd) 65 (13 tb 16 rd) 85 (17
tb 21 rd)
6/tb 36 (6 tb 7 rd) 66 (11 tb 13 rd) 96 (16 tb 19 rd) 126
(21 tb 25 rd)
7/tb 49 (7 tb 8 rd) 91 (13 tb 15 rd) 133 (19 tb 22 rd) 175
(25 tb 29 rd)
8/tb 64 (8 tb 9 rd) 120 (15 tb 17 rd) 176 (22 tb 25 rd) 232
(29 tb 33 rd)

If your facilitation design permits asynchronous
table gatherings and/or does not require that
everyone meet with everyone else then many additional
perfect solutions are possible. For example,
in a virtual environment all the people assigned
to a particular meeting at a particular table would
synchronously arrive to meet at the same time
at that one virtual table, but each person would
be assigned to several different tables that meet
asynchronously at different times. If everyone
already works in small teams, then the speed
dating event might be designed so that people
don't ever sit at any tables with members of their
regular work team and again many additional perfect
solutions become possible.

The details of how to do all this are described
in an online Mathematical Association of America
article by Ed Pegg Jr. titled "Social Golfer Problem"
http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_08_14_07.html ('http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_08_14_07.html')
Ed's article is one of those rare gems that is both
accessible to a general reader and has been
written by an expert in the underlying mathematics.
(To understand it you don't need to be a math major---
you just need to have some interest in math puzzles.)

Sally, I'll be very happy to help you with
the combinatorial details.

Warmly,
Chris.

Christopher Haydock, Ph.D.
Applied New Science LLC
+1-612-235-6352
ChrisHaydockSkype
http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishaydock ('http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishaydock')
http://www.appliednewscience.com ('http://www.appliednewscience.com')