Conversation Week

March 11, 2008

A beautiful effort from Vicki Robin, who I know through the Art of Hosting world and other connections. Join in...

Dear friends,

The table is set and you’re invited. Conversation Week March 24-30 is waiting for you. Please read this whole email - it's 5 minutes and I want you all with us at least in spirit.

Please click here to see the map of where in the world conversations are already planned – and sign up to host face to face or online with Global Mindshift.

I invite you to my 12 podcast about Conversation Week and what it means to be a host. Imagine you asked me, "What's so cool about CW?" and I am telling you.

The 10+1 questions are powerful. 600 potential questions were submitted, then winnowed to 50, then voted on by 1500 people in 39 countries to find the top ten questions in the world today. This is an experiment in thinking globally and talking locally, at having the experience of sitting down to talk… and listen… with people around the world.

If you speak another language, watch this video invitation to translate one or more questions, speaking them into your webcam and sending them to http://www.quantumshift.tv/. We want Global Conversation Week to be truly global - in lots of languages.

What we learn in our conversations will be summarized and sent to global leaders to reveal what we discovered in our searching conversations.

Review of the steps to host a Conversation Café during Conversation Week
Sign up (you can come back to fill in details later)
Forward this email to invite your friends to host as well. We’re hoping for 150 conversations on 7 continents.
Take the phone training if possible.
Pick your favorite question from the top ten plus one.
Read the short Conversation Café manual
Find a location (your home with friends, a café or library or public space for the community)
Set a time, allowing 15 minutes for ‘settling in.'
Invite people. Use email. Download a flyer and post.
Have perhaps the best conversation of the year
Tell us what you learned. Return www.conversationweek.org at the end to respond to the survey. Write on the blogs.

One of the questions for Conversation Week is “How do we shift from "Me" to "We" on both the local and global levels?” I’m discovering that Conversation Week itself is an effort in that direction and teaching all of us working on it how to let go of the “hub and spokes” model of social change campaigns, releasing this light, sturdy CW framework to be filled through networks beyond our imagining. More like a happening, less like a performance. More participatory at every level, less canned. More like a party, less like a training. More like open space, less like a packed conference agenda. Our early dream for the Conversation Cafes was that they would spread with integrity and fidelity – that people would pick up and use the method freely yet as designed, respecting that it truly is a minimal structure that allows maximal depth and breadth of conversation.

I hope you’ll join in to this global experiment and feel the “magic in the middle” of both your local conversation and the worldwide inquiry about these questions we've picked as the top ten for 2008.

All the best
Vicki

P.S. – here are the questions but i do recommend you read them in context:

How can we best prepare our children for the future?
What does sustainability look like to you? How do we get there?
How do humans need to adapt to survive the changes predicted for this century?
How do we shift from "Me" to "We" on both the local and global levels?
How can you, as Gandhi said, be the change that you want to see in the world?
What kind of economic structures can best support a shift to sustainable living?
How should we re-invent the political process so that people feel that they have a voice?
What kind of leadership does the world need now?
How can we balance our personal needs with the most pressing needs of our community and the larger world?
What can we do to reduce or eliminate violence in the world?