Amed Frontiers Conference 2013 Planning Meeting 3:05 Pm
AMED ‘FRONTIERS CONFERENCE 2013’ PLANNING MEETING 3:05 PM
AT ROOTS AND SHOOTS, LONDON, 14TH SEPTEMBER 2012
Present: Ned Seabrook, Bob MacKenzie, Linda Williams, Roger Niven and David McAra. Nic Shugar joined us using Skype.
Apologies: Shelagh Doonan, Dave Sharman, Chris Greeve, Irene MacWilliam, Paul Z Jackson and Nazreen Subhan.
Ned circulated a copy of the ‘Frontiers Conference 1998’ programme in advance of the meeting.
Duration: Agreed two day conference allowing attendees to have extended coffee breaks for conversation and also meeting up in the evening. This format may attract former members.
Venue: Nic suggested venues in London (good transport links). Territorial Army Centre off Oxford Street, Quaker venue and HSC? [After meeting note: Brighton is also an option.]
We could look at partnering with institutions with onsite accommodation and meeting rooms.
Partners & Themes: We discussed the possibilities on the table, ‘Wisdom in Organisations’ with Triarchy Press and ‘Open Source Thinking’ post publication with IAF is already scheduled for 20th September.
AMED would be the Umbrella Organisation.
Using Open Space we can explore other themes relating to e-O&P titles, including Nic Shugar’s Winter edition ‘Real Leadership Now”’
Ned read out the suggestions and ideas he received from members. Nic suggested we look for an alternative word for ‘Conference’ as it is associated with speaker events with little interaction with listeners.[After meeting note: Thesaurus suggestion include: Session, Meeting, Discussion, Consultation, Talks, Seminar, Forum, Convention, Summit and Symposium]
Placing pictures on the wall could help to start conversations - should we consider inviting Professor Les Ebdon ‘University Tsar’ or similar speaker to the conference?
Costs:In 1998 attendees paid £464 with accommodation including dinner and £370 without accommodation and dinner. All agreed we cannot charge these amounts. Aim for £200 without accommodation, no paid speakers and approximate 60 attendees.
Advance planning
-Agree date. Bob to check if IAF would be happy for us to add an extra date, also checking with Julie Allan, see after meeting note on page 2
-Follow-up Conference Call on 2nd October 8.45am. Dial in 0844 762 0 762, enter the pin 83464# when prompted
-Start a ‘Frontiers Conference Planning Group’ on the website. Action David.
-Suggested date for next face to face meeting is 15 or 16th November
-Meeting closed 4.30pm
After meeting note from Bob reading finalising date and ‘design’
On reflection, before we go too far towards finalising a date and the ‘design’ for our 2013 Frontiers Conference (or whatever we decide to call this event), I think it’s important to remind ourselves that IAF Europe through Rosemary Cairns (my co-editor on the Spring 2013 issue of e-O&P) has first call on 20 September 2013 for a Joint AMED/IAF event on Open Source Thinking and Diversity, which might possibly stretch into Saturday 21 September. Those dates were fixed because they coincide with a rare visit of Rosemary (a Canadian based in Serbia) to the UK.
Until I’m able to contact Rosemary, who’s currently working somewhere in the Ukraine, I won’t be able to confirm to you that IAF would feel that it’s appropriate to come in under an AMED-only umbrella event on 19/20 September 2013, with a potentially much broader ‘agenda’. So I just want to make it clear that my first commitment on 20/21 September has to be to a joint AMED/IAF event. I did say this at our meeting yesterday, and I don’t want that point to become lost in the excitement and euphoria that we generated superbly in our more wide-ranging discussion.
It’s possible, of course, that IAF will feel able to participate in an AMED-only umbrella event on 19/20 September 2013. But if not, options appear to me to be (a) to stick with a 19/20 Sep 2013 AMED event, and accept the consequences of a clash with a pre-arranged concurrent AMED/IAF partner event on 20/21 September, or (b) to re-schedule a separate Frontiers Conference under an AMED-only umbrella.
By the way, let’s not forget Julie Allan’s interest in all this, as we also have a commitment to her to give space to some form of high profile f2f ‘Wisdom in Organisations’ post-publication event, involving Triarchy Press amongst others. I get the feeling that Julie is fairly keen not to have this focus ‘diluted’ with too many other possible simultaneous themes.
So I guess that it would be important to discuss our plans with Julie as well before they become too firm.
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