Thus the Local Organizing Committee seeks to set this conference up in a way will support the further deepening of the World-Ecology conversation. As such, we do not intend to run this as a completely conventional conference. By this we mean that the emphasis will be on developing dialogues and fostering discussions, not solely on individual presentation. To support this aim we are asking all conference presenters to prepare a short paper which will be distributed to the Working Group prior to the conference. This paper is request to be no more than 3000 words (not including references).
Every participant in the conference will be assigned to a Working Group. This working group will be the community which you participate with for all the parallel sessions of the conference. You need to read ALL the papers for your Working Group sub-section in advance – and as many of the others as you wish. More information about your specific Working Group and Sub-Section will be sent to you at the end of April. The Local Organizing Committee is working hard to put the papers together in a way which foster interesting and groundbreaking discussion and dialogue.
The Working Group sessions will allow everyone to present their papers and/or personal experiences in 10 minute presentations. Remember everyone in the Working Group sub-group is expected to arrive at the session with the papers for the session read. After the presentations in each session there will be a lead and facilitated discussion for approximately 40 minutes. More information about the discussion part of the Working Group sessions will be released as we get closer to the conference.
The parallel Working Group sessions will be interspersed with plenary sessions that will bring all conference participants together. All plenary sessions will be focused around creating space for dialogue between and with the keynote speakers. We want everyone in the conference to join us for these plenary sessions and hope that you will be ready to ask questions, raise issues, and engage. In this spirit, our final plenary will be utilizing a “Fishbowl” technique to engage maximum participation.