Practitioners Hosting at the Gathering
Here's who will greet you when you come join us. Read more about our Hosting Team, our Local Hosts and our Track Hosts.
Hosting Team
Mary Alice Arthur / Intentional Nomad, Denmark [Tracks 1 & 7]
Mary Alice is a Story Activist, using Story to help make positive systemic shift and for applying collective intelligence to the critical issues of our times. Her art is in creating spaces where people can find the stories that take them to their most flourishing future. Building the capacity for participatory practice supports people to take back the power of their stories so they can make wiser choices. She is a sought after process consultant and event host, and an engaging speaker. Through The Story Dojo, she is spreading the meme of Story Activism, supporting people to develop their skills and practice and engaging in leading edge conversations about the power and potential in our world. As an international steward of the Art of Hosting, she teaches participatory practice around the world. Mary Alice is a life-long intentional nomad and on the way has been gathering wit and wisdom from the world in the form of stories, mythologies, teachings and learnings, which weave their way into her life and work. Her work has the intention of witnessing, calling forth and supporting authentic mastery. www,getsoaring.com "I have a wish to deepen my own practice and be in learning with other practitioners -- that's why I decided to create this gathering and invite mates to join me in the hosting and in practice. Things are trembling in our world, even more a reason to meet each other, share our stories, be in inquiry and co-create new ways to host, harvest and act on conversations that matter. SO looking forward to seeing you there!" |
Ria Baeck / Belgium [Track 3 & 6]
I am actively engaged within the AoH network for 10 years; and learned a lot about stewarding a self-organising network. I am always curious about what else is possible, what else can we learn, both individually and collectively. These days, I am diving deeper into understanding complexity, and all that it entails for work and life; and want to learn more about what other methodologies can bring and how we can find the synergy so that we actually can change our systems. http://www.vitis-tct.be |
Phil Cass / USA [Tracks 2 & 5]
Phil just completed 16.5 years as the CEO of the Columbus Medical Association and Affiliates , 12 years as the President of the Franklin County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health services Board and before that 5 years as the CEO of Southeast, Inc., a mental health services corporation. He is now co-founder of a small leadership consulting, training and coaching company in Columbus, Ohio. He does leadership training, consulting and coaching worldwide (Africa, Australia, Europe and Canada). He holds a Bachelors degree from Kenyon College in Biology, a Masters Degree from Fairfield University in Counseling and Guidance and a PhD from The Ohio State University in Counseling and Guidance. He lives with his wife Laura and is a proud father, step-father and Grandfather. |
About your local Hosts
Alenka, Dragana, Jaka, Janja and Natalija are your Slovenian hosts and will hold you so that you will enjoy your accommodation and beautiful surroundings of our venue and our time together. They are all facilitators and/or trainers, hosts, all young (at least in spirit) and having deep wish to enhance the quality of personal and community lives. They are all entrepreneurs working from business to civil and youth sectors and public administration, in Slovenia and abroad. They are a combination of brave hearts and mystics and nothing is hard to do for them. Welcome! |
Track Hosts
Rachel Derrah / Canada [Harvesting]
Rachel has over 10 years experience as a strategic host & harvester, engaging and connecting grass-roots community with systems of influence. In the past five years she has been pushing the edges of graphic harvesting with a learning collective, Brave Space. Her work begins with the assumption that we possess the collective intelligence needed navigate the complex challenges of an uncertain world. We simply need to uncover it. Balancing fresh insights, critical reflection, and creative intuition with seeing the big picture, together we can discover the clarity needed to take bold steps forward. Rachel is an avid learner and listener, passionate about how people learn together, and build capacity to learn. Much of her experience is in large-scale civic engagement involving participatory sense-making, then strategically feeding back the harvest to decision makers and the wider-community. Current projects include using illustration to spread awareness of first voice stories to the public, and strategic sense-making and storytelling to shift the Justice system in eastern Canada, from the inside-out. |
Sophia Horowitz / Canada [Harvesting]
Sophia is cofounder & partner in Co*Lab, a social impact agency that enables public participation in order to deliver strategic and tactical results in national, regional and community based projects. Sophia brings more than 10 years of experience in urban planning, sustainable development, social innovation and designing and facilitating civic engagement. Her international background and experience from Honduras, Cuba, Turkey, the Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, and the UK help bring a global perspective and best practices to granular issues. Based in Halifax, Canada, Sophia has recently worked with Canadian transportation and urban planning experts, designed and facilitated a university program on sustainability leadership, and developed & hosted a national conversation on Canadian placemaking initiatives. |
Colin Craig / Northern Ireland [Track 1]
Colin has worked in the field of Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland for over 40 years. In 2014 he joined Corrymeela as their Executive Director. For the last 50 years, Corrymeela has become globally recognised as Northern Ireland's leading Peace and Reconciliation organisation. As a Practitioner/Theorist Colin has focused much of his work over the last 15 years in the field of Leadership Development, Conflict Management and Capacity Building. Over his career, he has worked with the public, non-profit and private sectors. This has included the design and development of capacity building initiatives with a wide range of Local Councils in Northern Ireland. Internationally he has trained extensively across Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Asia. He is the recipient of both a Winston Churchill and British American Fellowships and was awarded an MBE in 1996. Corrymeela believes that people can learn to live and work well together and has 50 years experience working alongside fractured communities and groups who are finding their relationships difficult, as well as addressing relational, societal, structural and power dynamics. www.corrymeela.org |
Julian Still / Belgium [Track 3]
Julian’s history is in Business interim management. He has been successful in leading, building and coaching teams, with his unique blend of energy, enthusiasm, humour, maturity and balance. He has been a senior Country, Business Unit, Plant and Program manager. He has a track record of start ups, turnarounds, and business or Industrial process re-engineering projects. He has lots of experience in Vertical Axis Wind Turbines, the Building industry and Telecom/Internet/TV operations. He is a past winner of the Belgian Interim Manager of the year award. |
Laura Weisel / USA [Track 4]
With over 30 years of experience, Laura has worked in primary through high schools, with students having special needs, institutional-based education, community colleges, universities, mental health and substance abuse services, and in workforce development. She has held administrative and leadership positions at the local, state and national levels. In 2000, Dr Weisel created a model leadership academy for emerging leaders at the John Clenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy. The academy still continues and has been a prototype for creating the future leaders needed to innovate community-based services. Laura pioneered AoH in education and has translated AoH's technologies into classroom methodologies. AoH's Participatory Learning Methodologies have excited educators and students by levelling the playing field for all learners to become successful learners. Participatory Learning Methodologies train the much needed social capital skills of collaboration, cooperation, working with diverse ideas and taking leadership roles. www.powerpath.com www.alignandredesign.com "It's so exciting to see educators shift from being the 'knowledge holder' to the 'host of learning'. Students are learning content and social skills. They are having a great time learning with peers. Educators are trading in lesson plans for hosting plans. We are using the natural learning processes and students are learning naturally with their peers." |
Kajsa Balkfors / Sweden [Track 5]
Kajsa's main inquiry and quest is how to build individual and collaborative capacity for positive change. Her home, Tillitsverket, is also her learning dojo, a community that hosts a local and national initiative to inspire and build consciousness around the meaning of trust, using knowledge and experience of creativity, playfulness and collaboration as tools. During her 13 years as CEO and head of R&D at internationally-renowned Cirkus Cirkör, she co-established contemporary circus on a national and societal scale through cross-boundary collaboration with a strong entrepreneurial focus. For six years she now supports other organisations, societies and leaders across sectors in their/our common need: how to develop collaboration, social innovations and participatory ways of working to more purposefully and efficiently contribute to societal change. She is a co-caller of initiatives and growing practicing communities Sweden 3.0 and Participatory Leadership in Practice. |
Marjeta Novak / Slovenia [Track 5]
Marjeta, CPF, combines a variety of strength-based approaches (such as Circle/Council, Appreciative Inquiry, Nonviolent Communication, wilderness rites) for people to meet as humans, regain hope and work together towards what they truly long for. Raised in one system (socialist Yugoslavia) and awoken to adulthood in another (turbo-capitalism), Marjeta is wondering what new, more life-serving world wants to be born - and how to support its delivery. She is grateful for the community of hosts/facilitators that share this same exploration; in Slovenia and in wider circles. www.humus.si/en |
Samantha Slade / Canada [Track 6]
Samantha is a collective business leader and Art of Hosting practitioner dedicated to developing capacity for the future of work. Over a 25 year career, Samantha has been pioneering new operational models and practices. She first worked in Canada in research and development, teaching and training, and technology. Ten years ago she cofounded two social businesses -- Percolab, an international company strengthening organisational culture and innovation and Ecto, a thriving co-working coop in Montreal, Canada. Both organisations are experimental fields for AoH operational ways, from collaborative general assemblies, to self-managing compensation models, and business quotes from the heart. Samantha works with teams and brings the conscious of the commons and the Fourfold Practice. She believes that organisations can be a microcosm of the world we want to live in. |
Tim Merry / Canada [Track 8]
Tim has been supporting diverse stakeholders to come together to launch, sustain and grow innovative initiatives for over 16 years. He has extensive experience, ranging from major international businesses and government agencies to local communities and regional collaboratives. All of his work is rooted in the belief that if we create the right conditions people will organize together and solve their own problems. Tim designs, delivers and trains tailor made processes where stakeholder voice is key to creating the systems, structures and services that meet the needs of all involved. Tim is one of the co-founders of the Art of Hosting, has been a supporter and board member of the Berkana Institute and is a co-founder of the Hub South Shore. He founded the Split Rock Learning Centre, a youth drop in centre in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, was one of the founders of Engage! InterAct in the Netherlands. He initiated the Art of Hosting Beyond the Basics training and is a core team member of NOW Lunenburg County, a citizen lead change initiative in his local community. In recent years he has become a popular public speaker, has a regular column in the local paper and appears on regional radio every now and then for comment on current affairs. www.timmerry.com |
Toke Paludan Møller / Denmark [Track 8]
Toke is co-founder and CEO of Interchange, a for more than profit Company based in Denmark and that works across the world where ever we are invited from the heart to what matters now. He is a process organizer and process host and has been pioneering in the fields of sustainable entrepreneurship, social innovation, participatory leadership, hosting and harvesting strategic conversations that matter, since the early 1970s. Toke is also a co founder of The Flow Game, The Art of Hosting and harvesting conversations and work that matters and the Warrior of the Heart dojo. |
FIGHT FOR SANITY
It is time to fight for sanity,
peace in the heart
and
love in the in between
it is in deed time
for the warriors and midwives of joy
to arise
it is time to serve life fully
as best we can
moment by moment
It is time to fight for sanity,
peace in the heart
and
love in the in between
it is in deed time
for the warriors and midwives of joy
to arise
it is time to serve life fully
as best we can
moment by moment