Issue #6: May, 2008
 Greetings! Welcome! And a special greeting to all our new subscribers!
The last two months have been a time of deepening connections throughout the World Café community and within our larger network of friends and colleagues. In this issue, you'll read about gatherings of World Café hosts and stewards in Spain, Switzerland, Mexico, and California, gatherings which are strengthening the ties of friendship between us and giving people the opportunity to co-create the futures they want to see. Starting with this issue we're also sharing news of activities being offered by some of our close friends and colleagues.
Meanwhile, the World Café is being used in collaboration with increasing numbers of people and organizations all over the world, most recently in Oman, Taiwan, Tampa Bay, Florida, and New Zealand. We've also seen activities bloom in Eastern Europe. Read on for details of these stories and more.
In fact, there is so much going on lately that we've decided to switch to shorter issues of TableTalk coming out once a month instead of the current every-other-month schedule. Watch your inbox towards the end of June for the next newsletter.
Finally, I encourage you to forward this e-letter on to others who you think might find the World Café of value, and I invite you to register in the World Café online community space so you can share your thoughts and experiences with others in the world-wide network. As always, I welcome your responses to this newsletter, as well as any contributions you'd like to make to future issues.Amy Lenzo, Editorand the World Café Community Foundation
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The Gift of the World Café:
Pay it Forward!
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| Great Dates
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June 5 -7, 2008
World Café Europe Gathering, Bilbao, Spain
June 7
Graphic Recording Training
Montara, California
June 9 - 11
Art of Hosting
Cochrain, Alberta
June 12 - 15
A Learning Journey to New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisana
June 22 - 28
Art of Hosting
Halifax, Nova Scotia
July 15
Bay Area
World Café Pot Luck
Albany, California
July 19 - 22
Art of Hosting
Neumayr Hutte, Germany
July 21 - 28
World Open Space on Open Space
San Francisco, California
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Details on all these events & more on the World Café website Calendar and in the "Freinds" event announcements in this issue.
Send us your dates!
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GiveLine:
Shop & Give Online
An Easy Way to Support the World Café
The World Café Community Foundation is registered as a 501c3 non-profit 'cause' at the socially-responsible online store GiveLine.
Giveline
redirects consumer dollars to charities and non-profits. So now all
your shopping can benefit the World Café. Use the link above, or the one on the website's Ways to Contribute page to browse available products.
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"Genuine questions - ones for which we don't already have answers - are open invitations to innovation."
~from The World Café: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
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You Can Still Make it to Bilbao!
 There's still time to join World Café Europe in Bilbao for the city-wide World Café conversation and conference June 5-7!
Listen to short videos with warm personal invitations from World Café Europe team members in English, Spanish, French & German!
A pre-event World Café was held by the local radio station about the future of the Basque country, which attracted crowds of 1,000 or more. Pat Munro says "It was truly a glimpse into the future we all want to see emerge" (more photos).
Stay tuned to the World Café Europe blog for "live" reporting of the event (and if you're there in Bilbao, please be sure to post plenty of comments for those of us who can't be with you this year).
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World Café Mexicano
 ("Palomilla" means "a flock of doves that fly together") Last month World Café steward and 'Palomilla Latina' member Carlos Mota invited a number of other World Café stewards and hosts to Tlayacapan for a two day gathering exploring the question of how to create a culture of dialogue in Mexico and Latin America. People came from Mexico, Brasil, USA and Europe, and by all accounts it was a remarkable event. "Girl geek" Fernanda Ibarra documented the proceedings in a series of audio interviews and offered to write an article giving the rest of us a view into what happened there. Ibarra's intelligent and probing exploration of collective intelligence, co-evolutionary design and the power of dialogue goes far beyond reportage to explore the essential core at the heart of the World Café and illuminate what it is we are really doing together. A big thank-you to her for this delightful piece! Click here to read Fernanda's article, listen to the interviews (in Spanish), and view a slide show Carlos Mota created from the event. * * * * * * * * * * El mes pasado Carlos Mota, steward de World Café y miembro de la 'Palomilla Latina' invitó a un grupo de Stewards y hosts del World Café a una reunión de dos días en Tlayacapan para explorar la pregunta de ¿cómo crear una cultura de diálogo en México y Latinoamerica?. Asistieron personas de México, Brasil, USA y Europa. Desde varios ángulos fué un evento memorable. Fernanda Ibarra, "Girl Geek", documentó el evento en una serie de entrevistas de audio. Así mismo ofreció escribir un artículo para dar al resto una visión de lo que sucedió.La inteligente y probada exploración de Ibarra en inteligencia colectiva, diseño co-evolutivo y el poder del diálogo va más allá de un reporte, nos lleva hacia la exploración de la esencia y corazón del Worldcafé e ilumina lo que realmente estamos haciendo juntos. Muchas gracias por esta deliciosa pieza!Haz clic en la liga apropiada para leer el artículo de Fernanda, escuchar las entrevistas o ver la presentación que Carlos Mota creó sobre el evento. Incluye las preguntas, respuestas y visualización gráfica. |
World Café at SoL in Taiwan
Last November an international World Café hosting team, led by regional steward and master graphic facilitator Ulric Rudebeck, traveled to Taiwan to support the annual Tao SoL conference.
We've been hearing tidbits about this extraordinary event for months, and eagerly anticipating the report which was being collectively written by Ulric and the rest of the hosting team - Ken Homer, Andri Lehn, Stephen Meng, Samantha Tan and Morel Foreman. We knew it would be exquisitely presented but couldn't have imagined just how beautiful it would be.
Download the pdf and read the whole story.
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Research Updates
The research partnership between the World Café and Fielding Graduate University got a running jump in early April when participants from Fielding, University of Texas San Antonio, University of Southern Florida, the World Café Foundation and more met for a three day summit in Anaheim, California. It was a rich and creative meeting which spawned a number of innovative research projects you will no doubt be hearing more about in the coming months. For a report of the works-in-progress, have a look at the World Café/Fielding research wiki.  All those intested in the World Café's intellectual roots will be excited to hear about a short course "Cultural Biology: The End of Leadership and the Emergence of Co-Inspirational Management" being offered by Dr. Humberto Maturana Romesin, Prof. Ximena Davila Yañez and the Matriztica Institute this August in Boston.
For more information and registration details see the notice in our "Friends of the World Café Events" article, below.
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What Else is New?
The San Francisco Bay Area World Café community will be gathering for a pot luck from 6-9pm at Laura Peck's house on July 15th. Contact Laura for directions and further details.
With an upcoming Russian translation of the World Café book currently underway, stories of two World Cafés happening in the Ukraine (one revitalizing the conversational heritage of L'viv and one a seminar on Values Based Business), World Cafés in Hungary and a Hungarian translation of Café To Go, there's something amazing happening in Eastern Europe right now! We also welcome two new (to us) groups offering World Café events in Western Europe - Daniel Gut with World Café Solothurn is producing a World Café event in Soloturn Switzerland on September 6th, and Jaap Voerman too is offering World Cafés in the Netherlands.
For More News...
For ongoing World Café news and resources, subscribe to the World Café Community blog and check in regularly with the 'What's New' and Cybrary pages on the website.
Send in your own updates so they can be shared with the network.
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Multi-Generation in Kosmos Journal
 The World Café has long been a leader in multi-generational dialogue
and collaboration, and Juanita Brown was recently asked to write an
article about our experiences for the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of the Kosmos Journal.
Juanita's article includes some fabulous multi-gen photographs, and gives special acknowledgment to Samantha Tan and Ryan Feinstein, stewards for World Café multi-generational collaboration. Contact either of them to find out how you can be part of the fun!
Download a copy of the article here.
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"Friends of the World Café" Events
June & July ~ The Art of Hosting is hosting a number of trainings in the next few months, two in Canada and one in Germany. Check the website calendar for dates, and the Art of Hosting website for more details
June 10 ~ Tune in to Heartland Circle's VisionHolder tele-conference interview series, this one with Theory "U" author Otto Scharmer. Register for this free event, and while you're on the website check out their other programs, including Thought Leader Gatherings and Art of Convening.
Click here for more information and the rest of the story.
July 21 - 28 ~ The Open Space Institute is hosting a week-long World Open Space on Open Space in San Francisco, including an evening with Open Space founder Harrison Owen on Tuesday, July 22, which is free to the public. Register now to save your place.
The week of Open Space exploration will be followed by an OpenSpace Online event in September, date and time to be announced.
August 4 - 8 ~ The Matriztica Institute will be presenting a course with the legendary Dr. Humberto Maturana called "Cultural Biology: The End of Leadership and the Emergence of Co-Inspirational Management". It will be held at the Marriot Boston Quincy in Boston, Mass. Download the course description, register now, or contact Dennis Sandow for more information. August 6 - 8 ~ The International Forum of Visual Practitioners will be having their 13th annual conference in Chicago, where Nancy Margulies will be presenting a keynote presentation exploring the Tipping Point for visual recording and facilitation today. Click here to register and for more information. November, December & January 09 ~ The Bali Institute for Global Renewal is planning a whole series of workshops in Ubud, Bali towards the end of the year. See their website for early registration deals and more information about their upcoming schedule of events.
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Conversations that Matter
Hot conversations in the World Café network
 Ukrainian World Café host Raffi Aftandelian started a conversation about the challenge of translating key World Café terminology into other languages (in this case, Russian), asking what "conversation that matters" means to others in the community.
The responses have been fascinating and the conversation is still happening. Log on to the online community space and add your thoughts about what defines "conversation that matters"!
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Graphic Intelligence
The April Seeds of Compassion event in Seattle yielded some spectacular graphic recordings (World Café GiGi Nancy White was among the recorders and created this image). They also set up this wiki to help share what happened.
One of the other recorders, Tim Corey, said something that really sums up the experience of graphic listening beautifully. He said, "There is no better place for us to be than in this moment right here, right now; we are the vehicle for the images that exist in the group's subconscious."
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The World Cafe Community Foundation
Email: news@theworldcafe.com
Web: www.theworldcafe.com |
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