I am heading to Vancouver in June to work with friends – Chris Corrigan and Steven Wright. We are currently designing a series of World Cafe conversations for the World Indigenous Housing Conference. You can read all about WHO is behind this gathering by clicking on the Conference Logo.

One of the crucial parts of the design is the Invitation (Chris writes about Inivitation here and here).

If an Invitation to a gathering was a small plate of nuts that needed to be cracked … then one of our key organisers has just cracked a few open! He has built a relationship with Mike Holmes – a well-known TV host, housing expert and philanthropist. Not only is Mike a keynote speaker at the conference, he has produced this video. They present a story that gets to heart of what an Invitation should. It speaks of the Need (the compelling reason why?), it’s Purpose (what we hope to achieve) and the People (who this is for).

Mike also says this …

“Everyone is bringing to the table, what each of us knows, so that we can make it right together.”

This little quote is at the heart of our design of the group dialogue and conversations which will feature on Days 2 and 3 of the conference. It acknowledges that no single person, group, culture or organisation has the answer to solve indigenous housing problems – they are way too complex and interconnected! Instead we need the ideas and perspectives from the whole field, brought together into conversation, to accelerate change.

I am looking forward to the conversation before, during and after this Vancouver gathering.

Geoff