Dialogue Cafes in Whistler, Squamish, Pemberton
Our Dialogue Cafes provide ways to experience the principles and practices of dialogue at the street level. They enable the practice of understanding other viewpoints and exploring common ground - in short the "art of thinking together". This is in contrast to the normal scrums of combative debate and defensively arguing for set positions. We often discover surprising results instead of boring predictable talk by people with partisan agendas. We are part of an emerging public conversation movement as demonstrated by the Philosophers' Café series at Simon Fraser University and the growing movement of community conversation across North America.
Leadership Sea to Sky
The scarce resource for the 21st century is good leadership. Community leadership establishes networks of understanding across sectors. Businesses, governments, voluntary organizations all require experienced and committed leaders to thrive and prosper in a rapidly changing and challenging world. We need leaders who will instill trust, commitment and confidence; build teams and partnerships; define goals and objectives; direct and manage change, and develop and inspire vision. These are the attributes of dialogue-based leadership.
Leadership Sea to Sky is our community leadership program that draws emerging leaders from First Nations, Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton. The goal is to energize regional resources through collaboration and shared understanding to the benefit of all. Leadership success enhances our collective strength, taking us beyond our current reality into a shared vision of a healthy, prosperous, connected region - from Sea to Sky.
Learn more about Leadership Sea to Sky
Leadership Summits
These summits foster and support leadership for meaningful citizen engagement, and to inspire practitioners, decision-makers, media and academics interested in the best practices of public participation.
Our first summit was co-chaired by Angus Reid and Kristi Wells, November 10, 11 and 12, 2004 at the Chateau Fairmont, Whistler, British Columbia. Leaders in civi engagement included Carolyn Lukensmeyer from AmericaSpeaks, Steve Rosell from Viewpoint Learning, Dave Biggs from Envision Tools and Laval University professor Pierre-Gerlier Forest. Also featured was the leadership at work in North America's first Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform.
The November Summit of 2005 brought together 40 leaders from across the Pacific in our Collaborative Governance in the Asia Pacific. The complete workbook for that Summit and the final Report "Gateways to Collaboration in the Asia Pacific" are available under the Pacific Gateway Initiatives.
Pacific Gateway and China Initiatives
1. Our November 2005 Summit on "Collaborative Governance in the Asia Pacific"
2. Leadership Sea to Sky Cohort III project on "Gateways to Asia from the Sea to Sky"
3. Collaborating with "The Summer China Institute" of UBC's Institute of Asian Research
4. Collaborating with the Aspen Global Leadership Network on the development of the Forum's "Pacific Gateway Leadership Initiative"
