Here is Bernard Mohr’s reflection on the 2017 Meeting:
The 2017 Roundtable/Global Network meeting was one of the best yet. The content and process was provocative and happened to be spot on for the new book Ezra Dessers and I are co-editing “Designing Integrated Care EcoSystems: A SocioTechncal Perspective”
We both learned a lot and left with many great questions ( good thing !)
My sense is that we continue to evolve well as a learning community.
The input of new voices (e.g. Chris Lawer) along with voices from our past (e.g. Bill Pasmore) and the use of virtual connection (e.g. with Peter Aughton) are wonderful additions to the inter-continental relationships that continue to evolve! Also, the contribution of the PhD level students was extraordinary – and frankly quite different qualitatively from past North American student participation – perhaps a factor of student level (PhD vs Masters) and also that they come from research and study frameworks more closely aligned than past student participants? In any case, I greatly support our pursuit of graduate student participation on an ongoing basis. And of course the linkage to content related academic institutions is quite a wonderful evolution for us. The campus location, the low cost of housing and the excellence of the meeting facilities contributed a great deal also. Kudos to the design team of all the great work in making this all happen!
The difficulty we had coming to meaningful agreements and products (e.g. about what is a value versus a principle vs a design element) in our small group work sessions continues to bedevil us somewhat but the struggle seems to be moving forward – even if incrementally so. Certainly the lack of shared meaning around key topic s such as what is a social ecosystem and what does to mean to :design: a social ecosystem was reduced if not solved during the time together. I suspect that as long as we have these sorts of cutting edge dialogues, with significant time constraints, we will will always leave feeling somewhat incomplete.
My hopes for taking the quality of our shared experience to the next level include:
- Do more of what we have been doing i.e. cutting edge themes, related cases, new and old voices, student participation, low cost housing, meeting facilities that have relevant scale and warmth (vs hotels), small integration sessions, etc.
- I LOVED the idea of ongoing zoom sessions and very much hope that the design team or someone will orchestrate these session – they have so much potential for us.
- My one BIG BIG request is to somehow ensure that accessibility of presenter slides PRIOR TO THE PRESENTATIONS. There is so much great content in the slides of presenters and it is agonizingly frustrating to try and capture it in notes during the presentation. Also, having the slides readily available IMMEDIATELY after the session would be enormously helpful in APPLYING the ideas within post session dialogues – both within and outside of the Roundtable
- Also, having a easily accessible (i.e. on the website) compilation of community products/outputs/decisions within 24-48 hours after the session would be enormously helpful in advancing and energizing the dialogues
Thank you to all who made this a great session !
Please, send us yours and we’ll be happy to post them.
Also, here is the page where we will post the links to webinars, articles, reflections and all the material generated by the Ongoing Learning Groups. If you want to add something, please email me!
