Projects and Ideas Exchange (PIE)

An Institute for Social Inventions' afternoon meeting was used as an experiment for a new way to structure meetings, called Projects and Ideas Exchange (PIE). Proposed by Dr David Chapman, and modelled on the cards that ladies used to have at balls to be able to book in gentlemen for particular dances, it was like a structured cocktail party. It provided booking forms which allowed for 23 'brief encounters' or quarter hour mini-meetings within the space of two and a half hours; and was generally agreed to have been a most stimulating afternoon. Topics that won their way through to the final 23 from the many proposed in the initial voting circle (each person could volunteer three topics) ranged from the nature of the self (is it discontinuous?), to male liberation (why are men so repressed and depressed?), to language and behaviour (people saying one thing and meaning another), to shanty towns for the UK (how to enable them?), to money & credit cards (what future in store for them?), to death (how to prepare for it?).

'Modelled on the cards that ladies used to have at balls'

PIE may be the answer for your potentially dull conference or party - often at ordinary gatherings there is no easy way a person can find others who are interested in the same things, or can get to talk about what is really important to them.

Dr David Chapman has now streamlined the PIE procedure, having written a computer program in both microsoft and BBC BASIC (which also runs on the Apple Mac) to optimise the arrangements, and is willing, for a negotiable fee, to act as consultant or to provide the software for your PIE meeting. How the Computerised PIE operates for a group of 20 or so in practice is as follows:

The group sits in a circle, and after the introductions, each person in turn briefly describes up to three topics (projects, ideas, problems - anything) that he or she wants to discuss with others. Each topic has a number and participants note down the number and beside it they record the extent to which they feel like discussing that topic by giving a mark from 1 to 9. At the end these scores are marked up on a master sheet (the participants also being identified by number). During the meal break, these details are fed into a computer, which is also given the number of rooms available and their seating capacity. It then comes up with the optimum arrangement of sessions, so that participants get as much of what they want as possible. The schedule print-out is posted up for all to see.

Dr Chapman's software is designed at present for meetings of up to 100 people, but could readily be extended to a larger number.

Dr David Chapman, Democracy Design Forum, Coles Centre, Buxhall, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 3EB (tel 0449 736 223).

Previous / Next / Table of Contents