Issue #7: July, 2008
 Greetings! Hi! Welcome to TableTalk!
This issue was going to be the first with a new format, a shorter version that will come out once a month instead of every other month.
The "shorter" part of the design has not quite worked out the way I'd planned, however. :-)
The World Café is traveling all over the world in ways none of us could have imaged even a few years ago. You'll find stories and upcoming announcements about many of them right here: this year's World Café "Cities of Dialogue" project in Bilbao, which started last year in Dresden and inspired one scheduled for Solothurn this September; a multi-generational collaboration at the Shambhala conference in Canada and a youth-driven café in a South African township; innovative Comedy Cafés in the US and Body Conversation Cafés in Oman.
You'll also find a calendar of international events hosted by the World Café and our friends around the globe, including a special event with Humberto Maturana that no one interested in the conceptual origins of the World Café will want to miss, notes from a wide-ranging conversation on Virtual World Cafés, and links to our community blogs, websites, social media and other interactive forums.
We hope you like this issue, and look forward to hearing your thoughts. This is your newsletter, a shared moment within this vibrant and expanding global network - what do you want to say here?
Warm Wishes,
 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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July 15
Bay Area
World Café Pot Luck
Albany, California
July 19 - 22
Art of Hosting
Neumayr Hutte, Germany
July 21 - 28
OpenSpace on OpenSpace
San Francisco, California
July 28
Comedy Café
San Francisco, California
August 1
Comedy Café
New York City, New York
August 4 - 8
Maturana Workshop
Boston, Massachusetts
September 6
World Café
City of Dialogue
Solothurn, Switzerland
September 25 - 28
Art of Hosting
Melbourne, Australia
October 3 -5
National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation
Austin, Texas
October 11 - 14
Art of Hosting
England
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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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"It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of othes."
~Montaigne
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2008 "Cities of Dialogue" in Europe
~ Solothurn & Bilbao
Solothurn
Future Takes Place in Solothurn, Switzerland
by Daniel Gut
We - 10 facilitators inspired by the World Café Europe Gathering in Dresden - want to involve as many people as possible into the dialogue on the future of the town of Solothurn (in Switzerland), which will be held on September 6.
In 10 different world cafés the people living in Solothurn shall talk about questions of the town's future that concern everyone. 10 organizations have caught fire and organize each one a World Café specifying their own topic und objectives. Whether woman, man or teenager, everybody is happily invited to join the dialogue. The ideas developed in the World Cafés will be taken further by the host organizations.
See more details about this upcoming event on the Solothurn website.
Bilbao The Conversation Continues and reports are coming in about the innovative 2008 World Café Europe "Cities of Dialogue" event hosted in Bilbao this May. One of the more ground-breaking local cafés was held in a Bilbao prison, which event
co-founder Pat Munro shares a bit about in her overview of this year's highlights. Another story comes from a participant from La Palomilla who traveled many miles to be there. They each sent some wonderful photos which can be seen in this slideshow. |
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Unique Opportunity to Discover the Roots of the World Café
by Juanita Brown
On August 3-8 in Boston I am planning to attend a powerful teaching seminar with Dr. Humberto Maturana and his colleague Prof. Ximena Davila, two pioneering
Chilean cultural biologists focused on the deeper process of co-evolution and renewal in human systems. They will help us see how we, as human beings with the unique capacity for language, reflective consciousness, and meaning making through the networks of conversation in which we participate have evolved today's world ... and what our possibilities might be for consciously co-evolving our futures together in more life-affirming ways.
Maturana's work has had a profound influence on the deeper intention of the World Cafe as an approach through which people can experience these living networks of conversation and their potential for co-evolving the futures we want rather than being forced to live with the futures we get. I encourage any of you who want to learn the scientific underpinnings of the World Cafe to join me in this powerful joint inquiry.
For more information and how to register.
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What's Else is New?
Body Conversation Café in Oman - Pierre
Goirand hosted an unusually intriguing World Café
at the Global SoL Conference in Oman this April.
Pierre's
BoCo Café used body movement, voice and rhythm, along with conversation,
as an experiment in fostering deep conversation.
Click this link & download the story.
 Juanita Brown, fresh from the Shambhala Institute for Authentic Leadership
in Novia Scotia, shares stories of an irrepressible inquiry into
multi-generational collaboration and some other exciting new ways the World Café
is traveling around the world. Read on... If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area or will be visiting on July 15th - join the World Café local community for a pot luck in the East Bay, from 6-9pm, at Laura Peck's house. Contact Laura for details & directions.
World Café Host Alan Steward will be flying in from Singapore to bring his innovative " Comedy Cafe in Open Space: Adventuring in Later Life" to audiences in the United States. Using improvisational comedy altogether distinct from regular standup, Alan describes his role as "ambience director" in co-creating a fun-filled World Café that is unlike anything you've ever experienced before. San Francisco: July 28th at the Red Vic, 8 - 9:30pm New York: Aug 1 at the Gershwin Hotel, 8 - 9:30pm $20 admission includes bottled water, tea, coffee, & home-baked cookies/ Part of the proceedings will go to the Access Queen Fund Contact Alan to book: alan@multimindsolutions.com
Tanki Molefe is joining with two members of Global Development for Peace and Leadership to host a World café dialogue in a South African township where recent violent attacks on foreign nationals have taken place. Part of Rockrose Institute's Youth Dialogue Project, Tanki and his young colleagues intend to educate students on the ripple effect of the situation, unite the youth, and build on the positive outcome of the dialogues. Look for a report from Tanki in the fall.
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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OpenSpace on OpenSpace
The Open Space
Institute is hosting a week-long World Open Space on Open Space July 21 - 28 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. "Fabulous Facilitators" is a monthly drop-in pot-luck breakfast and
in-person conversation for San Francisco Bay Area folks who work in facilitation and
group process, hosted by Lisa Heft in Berkeley.
This year Lisa has the honor of hosting the World Open Space on Open Space,
so the next FF gathering will be a little different - a pot luck lunch
from 11:00am - 1:30pm on July 28th in San Francisco. Lisa is extending
a special invitation to the World Cafe community - come to meet and
share stories in casual lunch and conversation about our mutual work in
World Cafe, Open Space and other dialogic, participant-driven
processes.
For more information, contact Lisa at lisaheft@openingspace.net. The week of Open Space exploration will be followed by an OpenSpace Online event in September, date and time to be announced. |
"Friends of the World Café"
Events & Announcements
Are You the Next President of Pegasus?
Pegasus Communications (Waltham, MA), is seeking a president to take the company to its next stage of development. The new president will join a strong, experienced staff of 9 employees in building on the successes of the past while seeking new markets and business opportunities.
For more details and an application.
July 19 - 22 ~ The Art of Hosting is offering a training in Germany later this month. Check the website calendar and Art of Hosting website for details.
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. (See Juanita's note about why this course is so important above) 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. September 8 - 12 ~ Pioneers of Change will be using the Art of Hosting pattern to celebrate its 10th anniversary with a multi-generational gathering in Axladitsa-Avatakia, Greece. For more information, download this pdf, or register directly.
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"Hot Conversations"
One of the more prolific conversations on the online community space in recent history was started by a new subscriber with an innocent question about virtual cafés.
Seventy-six (and climbing!) posts later, joined by vetran World Café hosts and newer faces from around the world, we've touched on everything from debating the merits of different technology choices to exploring the values that lie at the heart of the inquiry, far beyond the reach of technology alone.
Along the way, we've seen some great resources, including a seminal paper from Edna Pasher on one of the first Virtual World Cafés ever, the Knowledge Ecology Fair in 1998, and the lead article from the May 08 Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner on New Conversation and Deeper Connection, by the issue co-editor, Loretta Donovan.
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The World Cafe Community Foundation
Email: news@theworldcafe.com
Web: www.theworldcafe.com |
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