Proposals made at the end of the Barcelona conference

[Dietrich]

Proposals made at the end of the Barcelona conference to improve forthcoming conferences:

- Each conference session should have a time keeper

- Sufficient time for discussion after each talk

- Not too many talks! Alteration between talk - meditation - workshop!

- At the beginning a contributioin which reaches the herats (i.e. a transpersonal experience) - don't start with a scientific panel

- A "world café discussion"

- An ongoing group throughout the whole conference to allow interpersonal exchange

- A morning group to share dreams

- A morning group for meditation

- Handouts which might help to grasp the essence of a lecture

- A conference room which allows sitting in a circle even in a large group

- Tools of creating a bridge between spiritual practice and outer world

- An internet forum ...

[Rowan]

I agree with the proposals of Dietrich, and hope that most of them can be carried out at the next conference in Italy.

John Rowan

[Pier Luigi]

Dear Dietrich and John and all.
We are working hard with honour and enthusiams for next Conference in Milan.
We apreciate ous suggestions and we agree with them. We'll actualize most of them-
Each conference session should have a time keeper

- Sufficient time for discussion after each talk Ok

- Not too many talks! Alteration between talk - meditation - workshop! ok (se the first draw program on the website)

- At the beginning a contributioin which reaches the herats (i.e. a transpersonal experience) - don't start with a scientific panel ok

- A "world café discussion" I don't know what it is. Could you tell me more? (At the moment in  the program we have working groups)
- An ongoing group throughout the whole conference to allow interpersonal exchange ok (what about one hour sharing groups in the plenary all nights before event)

- A morning group to share dreams  ok (it will be differents meditationgroups early in the morning. Could you  lead one on dream sharing)

- A morning group for meditation ok

- Handouts which might help to grasp the essence of a lecture

- A conference room which allows sitting in a circle even in a large group. I'd love it but quite difficult to find in Milan such a room (For 300 or more people)

- Tools of creating a bridge between spiritual practice and outer world ok Please see the contributions for Transpersonal Manifesto and add some contribution

- An internet forum ...



Thanks and love
Pier Luigi

please follow the process on the website: www.eurotasitaly2009.eu

[Dietrich]

Dear Pier Luigi,

I appreciate very much that you take the proposals made at the Barcelona conference well. As for the "world café" I do not remember who brought up this idea at the end of the Barcelona meeting. Last may I took part in a world café discussion at a conference on ayahuasca in Heidelberg. Let me sum up the main ideas as far as I understood them:

1. Seat a small group of people at café style tables or in conversation clusters.
2. Set up progressive (usually three) rounds of conversation of approximately 20 minutes each.
3. Ask volunteers to host each of the table rounds.
4. Encourage both table hosts and members to note key ieas on provided large sheets of paper.
5. Upon completing the initial round  of conversation, ask the hosts to stay at the table while the others  serve as "travelers" or "ambassadors of meaning". The travellers carry key ideas, themes, and questions into their new conversations.
6. Ask the table hosts to welcome the new guests and briefly share the main points of the initial conversation. Encourage  guests to link and connect ideas coming from their previous table conversations.
7. By providing opportunities for people to move in several rounds of conversation, ideas, themes, and questions begin to link and connect.
8. In the third round of conversation, people can return to their home (original) tables to synthesize their discoveries, or they may continue traveling to new tables.
9. After several rounds of conversation, initiate a period of sharing discoveries and insights in a whole group conversation.

For more information try Google under "world café discussion" - you will find a lot of material there.

A very happy and peaceful New Year to you and your crew

Dietrich

[Pier Luigi]

dear Dietrich,
thanks for explanation.
The idea of working group is something like that.
I'll love to do some world cafè at the next Conference but we need hosts that know how do it works.
Maybe someone who brought up the idea in Barcelona
we wait
love
Pier Luigi

[Norman]

Dear Friends
I was feeling some of this after the Barcelona conference (as with so many other conferences).
And I have not engaged in this Forum until now, well after the Milan conference, from which I emerged with lots of wonderful experience and a few creative comments along the same lines as Dietrich above. I have run World Cafe Seminars with lots of people.... and used other creative meeting techniques for working with large groups.

I'm sorry for not having got involved earlier in this forum. I have been immersed in my own spiritual crisis over these last two years.
I'm sorry for any critiscism implied in my comments about the Milan Conference, in the recent newsletter,  especially when I have not offered my experience here as support.

I now propose to open a new topic on Conference techniques.... to address these issues and support conference organisers to meet our broadly shared aims.

with love

Norman