The reasons for a large group event can be manifold: You would like to reach many participants at once; you would like to make sure that each person concerned acquires the same amount of information at the same time; you are interested in creating a group or team experience; you feel it is important to make certain features of the corporate culture transparent to everybody.

Particularly in the framework of change processes the large group event is an important element in the course of a process. However, there are risks involved: How do you direct a very large group? What happens if the event does not unfold according to plan? How do you make sure a dialogue and exchange take place? How do you prevent the event from getting out of hand?

In our view, the success of such an event depends on very thorough preparation and an experienced facilitator of large groups, as well as compliance to the following^*:

• A dialogue between the participants is desired and will be supported.
• The participants take an active role and want to take responsibility for themselves and their surroundings.
• The facilitators provide an open-minded atmosphere, in which people feel safe to state their opinions (this assists the group in a process of cooperative learning).

*Martin Leith, Center for Large Group Intervention