Business Planning for AoH

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Please share key market research, findings & other business planning gems that are applicable to the art of hosting.

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Latest Activity: Mar 16, 2019

AoH Customer Description & Customer Usage

customer description

The Art of Hosting (AoH) is another fast growing industry which focuses on bringing groups together to carry out creative problem-solving in a safe and supportive environment. The Art of Hosting is an interconnected, self-organizing global network – and "since it began almost two decades ago, it has been increasing capacity in the network, within and across organizations, systems and individuals" Kathy Jourdain.

There are currently over 2,500 practitioners from 70 countries registered on the Ning site. Tatiana Glad from Hub Amsterdam argues that 1 out of 3 art of hosting practitioners are online. In my research there were only 5 registered from Zimbabwe, a thriving community of practitioners. Therefore, we estimate that there are 7,500 practitioners worldwide (December 2013) and this number continues to grow.

According to the communications team monitoring websites, social media pages, and stewards’ list (qualified trainers), there are 150 qualified trainers from 19 countries.

When I started social media research in December 12, the Art of Hosting facebook group had 1,832 members. A week later there were 1,888 members and now, the facebook group has 1,947 members. @AoH_Live on Twitter has 968 Followers. LinkedIn has 895 members and 33 networking groups from specific AoH training sessions. On the Ning site there are 2,186 registered practitioners from 70 countries. The top three countries with the most practitioner members on the Ning site December 2013 are:

416 United States
294 Canada
119 in Scandinavian

The AoH started in 2001 by the founding team of a facilitators. Networks in Denmark, Castle Borl, United Kingdom, United States and Engage! saw a meta-pattern emerge in what is now called the Art of Hosting or what the European Commission coined the Art of Participatory Leadership.

Rainer von Leoprechting, one of the qualified trainers in the art of hosting says that “becoming a steward (qualified trainer) of the art of hosting is not a highly formalized process, like a formal exam or certification process. A qualified art of hosting trainer is determined by peer recognition. Stewards are repeatedly invited by other practitioners to mentor them in their own practice by delivering trainings.” Wendell Berry, author and philosopher defines “Stewardship is the care for something that you don’t own.” The purpose of the stewards is to ensure the trainings are high quality, teaching the core practices with integrity, while connecting the larger patterns that emerge across the globe.

Ria Beck & others shared the story of the stewards and found that retreats to discuss and connect the global patterns first started in 2005 in Nova Scotia with 15 people present. More retreats or Stewards Gathering were in 2008 and in 2010 there was a double gathering in Greece and on Bowen island, a few months apart, with 30 to 40 people at each. Since that time there were no gatherings until October 2013; however, the stewards list has been growing from around 50 to over 150. At the Minnesota 2013 gathering, there were 80 stewards. They include those from the founding team 2001 - 2005; the first ‘stewards’ who took the art of hosting further into the world from 2005-2010, and then stewards from the last 3 years during the art of hostings’ quick spread and growth.

customer usage (taken from 8 breaths)

A customer has a project which leads to one or more conversations which help us to achieve clarity of purpose.

First the customer will name the issue: What is really at stake here? When the customer is committed we go to the next phase.
Work with customer to co-create collective clarity of purpose and negotiate work agreements
Next, we design the gathering and invitation to suit the purpose. Our role is to host the group, the purpose, & the questions. To allow collective wisdom to emerge. For some customers, this is the only service they pay for. Other customers want a document of proceedings.
When the meeting is done, the group of stakeholders find collective meaning from all the data collected. This is where the data from the meeting is important - to capture key messages and insights and make sense of them.
A team renders down the information, so the customer can make required decisions. A deeper view of the patterns in the system can be seen. A clearer understanding is possible and new actions can be taken.

Conversation Forum

Tracking on-line statistics to show market opportunity

Keeping track of the statistics for the members of Ning & other social media platforms is useful research to show the market opportunity. My intent is to break down the statistics &…Continue

Tags: businessplanning

Started by Pawa Jan 6, 2014.

so.....where do we begin? 5 Replies

..cheersContinue

Started by Mario Solis Burgos. Last reply by Mario Solis Burgos Jan 3, 2014.

Good to see business here 1 Reply

Hey - good to see this and thanks for bringing it.Pawa - read ReWork. It is brilliant. You will love it. http://37signals.com/rework/also definitely worth…Continue

Started by Tim Merry. Last reply by Pawa Jan 2, 2014.

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Comment by Heather Nehring on January 15, 2014 at 5:19am: Thanks for the article on Using our Hands! It brings to mind my interest to practice using a wider focus. My focus on all the things "under glass" feels overfocused. I want to experience the great world!

Comment by Mario Solis Burgos on December 31, 2013 at 6:56pm: thx Pawa.

http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign/ this is an article about the future of interaction design.....I thought it was quite interesting, so I want to share it here.