Search Conferences Search Conferences focus on changing the relationship between and organisation and its environment. This process is ideally suited to large competitive businesses and complex government bureaucracies as it introduces a highly structured approach to change. Participants begin by compiling information about the outside world. Then they analyse the state of their current system and envision its most desirable future. In the final stage, participants integrate information from their environment and system to identify the constraints on realising their shared vision. Lastly they construct a desirable and achievable future and develop action plans for achieving their goals. Case History The Cumbria Voluntary Sector After failing to engage the local Council in a joint conference to explore the implementation of a the Council's new Voluntary Sector Strategy, the Voluntary Sector decided to go it alone. Over 60 participants from voluntary organisations, carers and service users, including those with learning difficulties, the profoundly deaf and wheelchair -bound, joined forces to determine how they could work more effectively together. "The planning group were fully involved in the creating of the event. The way the facilitators worked throughout the two days was excellent. We had tried to include everyone but the amount of written material excluded people with visual impairment. "There is an energy, enthusiasm and commitment to work together that wasn't there before the event. People in the voluntary sector have realized their own worth and the value of the sector in its own right - The Future is Ours" Janice Wilson, North Cumbria Voluntary Sector Steering Group Top © The Wisdom Meme 2008