Proposals Being Reviewed!
Many thanks to the 100+ persons who submitted proposals to present at our 2009 Conference in Vancouver. We are well into the review process and will be notifying selected speakers in accordance with the timeline below.
Important Dates and Information
- July 1, 2008 – Workshop Proposal submission deadline.
- August 30, 2008 – Acceptance notices and letters of agreement will be sent out.
- September 15, 2008 – Return Signed letters of acceptance and deadline for Workshop Leader registration. Note: All workshop leaders are required to register for the conference.
- November 1, 2008 – Conference registration on-line!
Feedback
Individuals who submitted proposals can request the summary of the reviewing teams’ assessment.
Confidentiality
Workshop proposal assessments are confidential, and are only seen by the specific Focus Area Coordinators and the Program Team Co-Chairs. The names of individual Reviewers are confidential and will not be included with the summary assessments. All correspondence between a proposal Reviewer, a Focus Area Coordinator, or the Program Team Co-Chairs is confidential.
Background Information on IAFNA Sessions
We are delighted to provide a wide range of conference sessions that appeal to new and experienced facilitators, project managers and team leaders from across North American and around the world.
The 2009 IAF Conference theme of Explore Diversity is the priority and emphasis for workshop proposals. All workshops should provide high-quality content, solid training, and interactive learning processes.
The extensive range of facilitation experience and diversity of facilitators at all levels should be taken into consideration. Each workshop is linked to at least one of IAF’s Core Facilitator Competencies. Workshops speak to the day-to-day experiences of facilitators working in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors.
Exploring diversity speaks to the reality that facilitators need both art and mastery to support communities and organizations, which are increasingly diverse. Facilitators know and understand that differing opinions, life experiences, worldviews, learning styles, personal attributes, and intergenerational expectations are reflected in the groups and organizations they work with. As such, facilitators use varied approaches to interpreting and resolving conflict, addressing a wide range of organizational structures, communication and decision-making norms.
Increasingly, organizations reach across countries, continents, and the globe. Managing geography and time in concert with people and culture requires expertise in effectively using technology to ensure that meaningful and productive conversations occur.
Program Focus Areas
Our conference program is organized into six focus areas designed to appeal to different conference attendees and to guide session leaders and participants as they consider conference content.
The 2009 IAF North America Conference “Focus Areas” are:
- Team Interventions
- Community Engagement
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Enhancing Your Facilitation Tool Kit
- Personal and Professional Development
- Large Groups
Team Interventions
Inter-disciplinary, cross-divisional, multi-stakeholder teams are now common vehicles for organizational dialogue and decision-making. Such teams are, by definition, “diverse.”
Indeed, this diversity is often intentional, and is seen to be a requirement to ensure in-depth exploration of issues and commitment and follow-through in the decision-making process. The facilitation challenges of working in such an environment are complex.
What are the most effective and proven methods and strategies for helping teams understand they can disagree and yet still get along to produce meaningful change and results?
Community Engagement
Communities in Canada, and throughout the world, are increasingly diverse. Rates of “civic engagement” among residents not born in a country are taken as markers of overall community (and national) civic health.
Community members have always expected a say in decisions that affect them. Increased diversity in communities has introduced new and multiple challenges for facilitators. This extends beyond “cultural” or “ethnic” diversity, and includes the full range of opinions and approaches embodied in any modern community.
How can facilitators ensure their work in community is effective, appropriate, and valuable to the discourse?
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Knowledge and an in-depth understanding of conflict management or alternative dispute resolution skills, as well as being aware of our own personal biases, can go a long way in meeting the challenges of conflict and diversity.
Unfortunately and all too often, conflict and diversity in the broader sense go hand-in-hand. All too frequently organizations try to avoid conflict by discouraging diverse opinions, ideas, and vibrant dialogue. Many communities and societies around the world try to do the same.
Understanding each others’ stories, values, needs and wants can nourish organizational and community health and personal growth. Skilled facilitators can enhance relationships and social growth by identifying common interests and understanding how to manage conflict to move groups forward to productive, meaningful, and sustainable solutions.
How best can facilitators actively engage diverse groups to be courageous in addressing conflict and differences?
Enhancing Your Facilitation Tool Kit
As a skilled facilitator, what is most effective when working with groups, organizations, and communities who are living and struggling with the challenges of diversity? What has failed miserably?
How can technology help to overcome those challenges of people, culture, geography, and time? What group processes and facilitation techniques have been successful in engaging people of different perspectives, life experiences, needs, and expectations?
Can we “keep it simple”? Or, is working in environments of high diversity inevitably complicated?
Personal and Professional Development
Continuous personal and professional improvement is essential for ongoing growth and development as individuals and as practitioners. This applies to all facilitators, those who might be independent consultants, employed within organizations, or teaching and training others.
What personal and professional development tools are needed to thrive within diversity? What business tips work most effectively with clients whose needs challenge our professional abilities and our personal “comfort zones”?
What do employed facilitators need to know and do to continually stay ahead of the evolving demands of their organizations?
What could help trainers of facilitators to be more insightful, and to create better real-world examples and experiences?
Large Groups
What does ideal group size mean? For some, the ideal group size is 8 – 10 people. For others it might be 30-40 or 100-200. What would commonly be considered a large group?
Increasingly, facilitators are asked to chair or lead larger groups, which may stretch their individual “comfort zone.” With the appropriate processes and facilitation techniques, effective and meaningful work can occur with any number of people. This applies both in face-to-face and in virtual situations. Increased group size brings increased diversity and complexity in managing the interactions of participants, in seeking closure and in gaining commitment and sustainable results.
What do facilitators need to know as they approach large group facilitation in environments of high diversity?
