The
First Annual Story Field Conference
"Invoking a New World through Story"
a pioneering interdisciplinary
gathering
of storytellers, artists and
experts
called by the field of stories arising among us
in the midst of the storm
storyfieldconference.net
August 26-31, 2007
Shambhala Mountain Center, Colorado
www.shambhalamountain.org/conference_facilities.html
What is the new narrative that is
already calling us?
What stories -- both ancient and emerging -- are so powerful that
they draw us to hope, to care, and to engage?
How can stories and the ways we tell them shift society
into greater aliveness and wisdom?
Some of those stories are full of bright promise...
Others speak of great darkness...
Many see bright possibilities emerging from a dark future, saying....
It is a dark and stormy night, and something is wanting to
be born...
We invite to this birth all energies
that
-
give fresh, positive meaning to life,
realizing we can create lives and a world that make sense, bring deep joy,
and secure the world for future generations....
-
provide inspiration, reasons, and guidance
that invite living better, and explore what it would be like to be people
moving towards living that way....
-
embody a rich, multifaceted vision of
a better world -- not a homogenous vision, but one made up of provocatively
diverse possibilities....
We come to this conference from many story
disciplines, each with elements of an emerging pattern. Together, we can shape a
new cultural narrative -- made
of a myriad of different stories -- that none of us could shape alone. We are
novelists, movie makers, artists, composers,
performers, musicians, journalists, historians, futurists, city planners,
online game designers, and storytellers of a dozen stripes.
And among us also are experts covering a
broad spectrum of what it will take to make a vibrant world.
Together, we can invoke a new "story
field" -- a socio-magnetic field pulsing with our diverse insights,
struggles and dreams. Together,
we can plot stories of yesterday, today, and tomorrow -- of
fact and fiction -- that re-make our world, appearing in
newspapers and magazines, TV series and
talk shows, books and blogs, movies and monologues, songs and stickers, advertisements
and images, histories, traditions and predictions, performances, computer
games, and conversations over dinners, coffees, and beers.
We seek people who take seriously their
role in how things turn out.
Conference
Intention
We believe that changing
the stories of the defining culture is a key to the social transformation
of humanity now at hand.
Our intention is to gather a diverse group of creative artists, media
people, thinkers, and doers engaged in story-work
to share our stories of what we are doing and learning in our own work,
to deepen our collective insights into the story change process,
and to grow the relationships of new alliances.
The centerpiece of the gathering will be an Open
Space process designed to facilitate deep dialogue.
For more about the conference process, click
here.
For one person's story of a multi-day Open Space gathering like this
one, see this
report.
For a theory of emergence underlying Open Space and other such processes,
click
here.
For more on our conference intention,
click here.
We want you with us.
The conference fee is $400 and accommodations
range from $296-$820. If you need financial help to participate, contact
Cheryl Genet at
or 805-438-4088.
The site is a rural retreat center.
The conference, itself, will be designed to help you find others who
share your passions, with ample time to talk and work together, or to have
quiet retreat time, together or alone. Each hour and day can be as full or
empty as you wish it. Companionship will be remarkable, scenery gorgeous.
Please arrive between 2 and 5pm on Sunday, August 26. The program will end
with lunch at 12:30pm on Friday, August 31.
For more information, explore the other
links at the conference
home page.
Let us know soon if you can make it, for
space is limited, variety is vital, and interest is keen. Reply to the person who invited you -- and REGISTER
HERE.
We hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
The Storyfield Conference invitational team
Tom Atlee
Peggy Holman
and
the other attendees
P.S. You are welcome to share the invitation mindfully. By this, we mean sense
who you most want to be in this conversation with. As we asked ourselves that
question, we reached out to creative innovators, who are skilled, respected
professionals in their field; people who are well connected, willing to collaborate,
willing to risk, able to listen and committed to creating a world that works
for all. Overall, we are striving for diversity in age, ethnicity, and perspective.
This conference is being
organized with support from
the Kellogg Foundation
and the Co-Intelligence
Institute.
Illustration credit
From Lava to Life; the Universe Tells our Earth Story
Jennifer Morgan author, illustrated by Dana Lynne Andersen
Courtesy of Dawn Publications
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