• Determine whether the open space technology process is the most appropriate technique for your situation, considering the people who are likely to take part and their preferences and attitudes, and the venues available to you.
• Select venue, facilitators and prepare information (open space technology can be successfully used in conjunction with other techniques such as conferences and workshops).
• Publicize the event.
• Describe process and rules to the participants, as outlined below:

• Principles as stated above (Whoever comes are the right people, etc.) and the Law of Two Feet.
• Follow due process
• One by one, each person who wishes to, steps into the center of the circle and announces their name and topics they feel passionate enough about to be willing to lead a break out session on that topic.
• Each passionate person writes the topic on a piece of paper along with time and venue for a discussion.
• Following announcements of topics by passionate people, the market place becomes open. The marketplace is a wall where all the topics, times and venues are posted to allow participants to decide which session to sign up to.
• Those who announced the topics facilitate the individual discussions and appoint people to record notes.
• Reconvene into the larger group and report back, or combine reports into one document and ensure widespread dissemination to all those who took part, and all those likely to make a decision.