OPEN-SPACE NETWORKING
If you’ve ever attended a professional conference or congress, you’ve probably come to the same conclusion as everyone else: The sessions and paper presentations can be a chore, while the real value of the experience is in the interstices, the common areas before and after each talk, the coffee breaks, the lunch lines, drinks and/or dinner with the other attendees. With this in mind, some ingenious person hit upon the idea of “open space.” An Open-Space conference is essentially all coffee break and lunch. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but you get the idea. There are no formal sessions; it’s all about networking.
(c) Peopleware by Tom DeMarko
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jug.ru с "дискуссионными зонами" почти так и получается. интересно было бы попробовать, когда целый трэк отведен под общение по темам.