2015 SLaM CONFERENCE RETREAT — FOUR STRANDS
Gritty and specific ─ Juicy and scholarly ─ Aesthetic and restorative
“Responding from the emerging future requires us to shift the inner place from which we operate. It requires us to suspend our judgments, redirect our attention, let go of the past, lean into the future that wants to emerge through us, and let it come.”
Otto Scharmer
VIEW CONFERENCE PROGRAM (Version 1, 9 June 2015)
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Facilitated by a team of highly regarded Australian thought leaders, each conference strand will support you to lean into the future of Mindfulness in business and professional life that wants to emerge. You will be companioned as you delve deep into your inquiry, using your own real-world challenges and leadership approaches as your guide. The strands will concurrently be the pathways, each person’s story of walking through them being a unique story, one of everyone’s, as we thread our way through the eye of the needle of our highest selves. The Facilitation Team members are custodians of each strand, practising their duty of care as a team, guided by Joseph Campbell’s creative mythology. With their presence you may travel freely between the different strands, as you listen and respond to what you see.
1. Programmed Strand– Collaborative exploration into the scholarship of mindfulness: Five 70-minute in-depth workshop sessions, chaired by the Strand Facilitator, and led by the selected facilitators, their question and their approach to collaborative inquiry to address it. Delegates may choose to attend all sessions, or just one or more that coincide with their own inquiry. Whatever your choices, your experience of the conference will have the benefit of high-quality, scholarly engagement.
2. Open Space Strand – Facilitated Open Space for participants to explore inquiries as they arise: A two-and-a-half-day Open Space event, following the principles of Harrison Owen’s passion and responsibility. Here, delegates can reach out to each other throughout the conference; you just have to ask your question out loud. You may create spontaneous workshops, performances, exhibitions or just an intimate two- or three-person investigation into what is going on in Mindfulness in your mind, for as long as you like.
3. Being In Nature strand – Connecting and transforming relationships with our environment, each other and ourselves: A directed program enabling delegates to be in nature, in solitude and/or in small groups, and including the option of sleeping out for one or two nights in the beautiful environment of the Wiseman’s Ferry retreat. When your inquiry rises, it may also wish to dive deep and listen to Nature within and around you. You may wish to experience the whole conference this way, or step in and out to return to Open Space or a facilitated workshop when you have found what you are looking for.
4. “Gone Fishing” strand – Creative “time out” with coaching for untapped potential: Sometimes when we go to conferences, exhaustion overwhelms us. But we think this can be a healing time. Our retreat offers time for nano-naps without penalty, kayaking, bushwalking, fishing… and many more delights – with friends and otherwise. Our “Gone Fishing” Facilitator will coach the thorn from your foot so you can walk your full potential, and know where you are when you step out of the other three strands to re-centre before diving back in.
Read about our Strand Facilitators.
KEYNOTE LISTENER
Weaving together the various strands of the conference will be our Keynote Listener, Rachel Shields.
We are emphasising the potential of the conference to generate new understandings for participants, rather than enrolling participants into existing knowledge and patterns. To this end we have forgone the role of Keynote Speaker for the bolder and more adventurous role of Keynote Listener. The person we have found to take on this role is Rachel Shields.
Find out more about Rachel.
Synthesis:
You do not need to pre-book which strand you attend. The program offers you alternative paths for exploring your inquiry question. The choices you make in the moment and within the situation with companions are the very stuff of synthesis. To assist you with your choices we also offer:
- Early morning and evening meditations
- Points in time when all strands (whoever is in them at the time) come together to reflect on what is emerging and where it needs to go
- Dialogue sessions with our Special Guest and Young Leaders
- Bounteous meals and convivial social times.
VIEW CONFERENCE PROGRAM (Version 1, 9 June 2015)
