Sunday, July 18, 2010
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Come ready to lead or co-lead a workshop on any topic you chose. Often people say the best problem-solving during a conference happens in the breaks. We’ll be bringing the breaks into workshops. Throughout the weekend, you are invited to design either a six-hour or three-hour session. You will post these ideas throughout the weekend to ‘advertise’ your workshop and invite revisions and additions. On Sunday, we’ll gather after breakfast, clarify any questions, determine whether any sessions should be combined, and then move into the workshops.  

You can come to the conference with a workshop in mind or develop one in partnership with other participants over the weekend.  Catch those sparks that fly during the scheduled sessions and set them ablaze on Sunday! Here is the space and here are the people! Ready, set, go!

From http://www.openspaceworld.org: Open Space works best when the work to be done is complex, the people and ideas involved are diverse, the passion for resolution (and potential for conflict) are high, and the time to get it done was yesterday. It’s been called passion bounded by responsibility, the energy of a good coffee break, intentional self-organization, spirit at work, chaos and creativity, evolution in organization, and a simple, powerful way to get people and organizations moving—when and where it’s needed most.  And, while Open Space is known for its apparent lack of structure and welcoming of surprises, it turns out that the Open Space meeting or organization is actually very structured—but that structure is so perfectly fit to the people and the work at hand, that it goes unnoticed in its proper role of supporting (not blocking) best work. In fact, the stories and workplans woven in Open Space are generally more complex, more robust, more durable—and can move a great deal faster than expert- or management-driven designs.

The Genetic Alliance Annual Conference is a fertile field for innovation that steps outside the box and creates new ways of being, thinking, and acting that transform systems. A few examples highlight the atmosphere within which this creativity has been loosed: GRANDRx (an informal coalition created to accelerate drug discovery for rare and neglected diseases), Coalition for Genetic Fairness (a formal coalition that educated congress and supported the passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act), and the Genetic Alliance BioBank (a one-of-a-kind cooperative of disease groups owning and managing a shared infrastructure for registries and biobanks). 

What’s at stake…for you, me, and us…and how can I/we be the change that removes the barriers to its fulfillment? For each of us, we know at some level what is at stake for ourselves, our children and grandchildren, our communities, and the world. This knowing is not always conscious, but it is present within us. This is an opportunity to discover it, declare it, and do something about it with others of like mind and heart.

Come prepared to invest yourself, your ideas, your hopes and dreams, your passion, and your responsibility for acting on them. You are invited to find a group, a setting, or a state of being where you are fruitfully addressing this question...for yourself and others. We’ll provide the catalyst to get the open space rolling, and you, your friends, and colleagues will do the rest. Discuss, debate, conceive novel partnerships, and emerge transformed and transforming—creating new systems that solve old problems, entraining new relationships that simply empower action, and inspiring yourself and others to rise above the limitations that used to constrain you.