The empowered society: Transforming cities, citizens and organizations for resilience and prosperity

Venue

• May 25: Sala de Atos do Politécnico do Porto, sito na rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 712, Porto https://www.ipp.pt.
• May 26: Gnration, Campo da Vinha, Praça Conde de Agrolongo 123, 4700-312, Braga, www.gnration.pt.
• May 27: Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Praça do Marquês 94, Porto 

You can choose to attend one, two or all three days of the conference. To fully benefit from this experience, we recommend attendance of the three days.

Schedule

• May 25 (Porto): 9:30 am to 6:00 pm (registrations 15 minutes earlier).
• May 26 (Braga): 9:30 am to 6:00 pm (registrations 15 minutes earlier).
• May 27 (May 27) : 9:30 am to 1:00 pm.

Tags

Developing effective collaboration, activating people, connecting people, inspiring change makers, women gaining equity, collaborative innovation, collaboration instruments/methodologies, collaborative citizens, emotional intelligence, context for a collaboration to emerge, sense of pride, leaving no one behind, leaving a legacy, touch the soul, inspiring collaboration by examples, dreams and visions.

Questions to guide our explorations

What conversations shall we have in Portugal to move beyond "desenrascar"? What would it take for Portugal to lead the way in Europe? What would it take to improve business collaboration? What would it take for Portugal to lead the way again in the world? What would it look like if Portugal were to become a world leader in collaboration? What would it look like for women to launch their own business? What would it look like Portugal XXI century sailors and for what "descobrimentos"? What would it look like for people in Portugal to adopt a positive mindset about risk and entrepreneurship? What would it look like for Portugal to be a place where bright young people can make their way in the world and feel both challenged and fulfilled while improving the employment situation? What this country strategic direction should look like for collaboration to become a competitive trend? What would it take to raise women's self-esteem and changing social expectations?

What has not been seen so far in the system? What has been excluded? Is the giving and taking in balance? Is there a natural order in the system? What are the key trends shaping Portugal today? Where will those trends be in ten years?

How can we retain more of our collective brain power? How does it feel not to have the ones who left? How to get good things created and get them in a broader system? How do we help people to realize that if they do not collaborate they will have a problem? How can we step beyond our own perceptions? What shall we do for people to adopt a positive mindset about change? What shall we do in order to replicate global dynamism at local level?

Conference drivers

The conference is organized around eight drivers grouped into three clusters:

Places

1.    Smart citizenship: enabling change in each citizen.

2.    The aware citizen: shifting our relationship from ego to eco.

3.    Happy healthy cities: core competences and supporting players.

4.    Smart cities: for residents and/or users?

Processes

5.                Developing organizational behavior towards social progress.

6.                Enabling people and organizations for change: Providing instruments and tools for a successful set of processes.

People

7.                From ideas to projects, from projects to businesses.

8.                Economy and success, leaving no-one behind.

SOL communities facilitators

An international team of skilled facilitators has been co-creating this highly interactive experience for you. Please arrive with an open mind and an open heart. Be prepared to welcome your fellow participants and to move through many interesting and unusual processes designed to tap both individual and collective wisdom in the service of creating a fulfilling future for Portugal. Know that while you may work hard, you can also expect to have fun!

• Annika Bergenheim, Sweden.
• Camila Amaya Castro, France.
• Paulo Ferreira do Amaral, Portugal.
• Sofia Rodrigues, Portugal.
• Martijn Meima, The Netherlands.
• Natalia Blagoeva, Bulgaria- Switzerland.
• Alexandre de Azevedo Campos, Portugal.
• Ken Homer, US.
• Marion Chapsal, France.
• Konstantin Yordanov, Bulgaria.
• Esther Liska, Portugal.
• Simeon Ries, Germany.
• Heidi Sparkes-Guber, US.
• Antonio Linares-Güemes, Spain.
• Agota Eva Ruzsa, Hungary.

Conference steps

What to bring

Please bring a picture or symbol of an elder who was important to you when you were a child. Someone who left a big impression on you and whose legacy you still carry with you today. Also, please bring a picture or symbol of a young person who is important to you now, someone you love and care for and who enriches your life today.

We will putting the pictures on display for everyone to see and you will take your pictures home with you at the end of the conference. If your picture is very precious to you, please bring a copy rather than risk any chance of injuring a prized memento.

Attire

Please wear comfortable clothing - we will be engaging in some guided movement activities.

Language

The conference will be conducted in English and there will be support available for anyone who needs translation.

About GASC

GASC (Global Association of SOL Communities) is a not-for-profit, global membership society, whose members are SoL communities, dedicated to the SoL principles and the SoL brand. The purpose of Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) is to discover, integrate and implement theories and practices for the interdependent development of people and their institutions. http://globalsol.ning.com/blog. Follow us on Facebook: @GASC2017