Dear Colleagues,

This has been a challenging year for Asia; economically it's muddling through previous turmoil and SARS came to threat. Everything seems to be a test of flexibility and resilience. The spirit of facilitation is to believe in "In here" rather than "out there". The answers we need is in our teams; all we need to do is awaken our capacity to listen to our inner wisdom. This is why we set the theme this year as Awakening to Possibility-we want to enhance the capacity for all sectors in society to deal with change.

Building on the excitement from last year, the second Chinese Facilitator's Conference will be on November 28 to December 1 at the Tien Mou International Convention Center, Taipei. We will expand the number of participation both locally and internationally, estimating at least 200 participants for this event.

We have more than 20 presenters for this conference. The sessions are reviewed by the program task force of preparation committee, aligning the theme and all the sessions.

Under the theme of the conference, we have developed five perspectives of sessions:

• Professional Skill Building: These sessions include basic group process skills, contributing to professional facilitation competence.

• Co-creation Think Tank: Knowledge economy emphasizes innovative capacity. These sessions will hold a space for innovative co-creation exploring feasible solutions to important social and organizational issues.

• Whole Systems Change: These sessions introduce facilitation methods to help organizations change and facilitate participation processes from a system point of view.

• Inner Wisdom: Sessions that elevate personal awareness through inner observation activities to explore inner wisdom so that our personal development benefits the groups that we are a part of.

• Multi-intelligence Learning Strategies: These sessions include diverse learning modes to facilitate interactive and experiential topics, enhancing the connection between and integration of experience and reflection.

A Invitation of Learning and Contribution

The conference will be quite different from what you know as traditional meeting/conference.First of all, you have choices to make during concurrent sessions. The sessions are highly experiential and interactive. Lectures are minimized for practicality. Secondly, we expect the participants to contribute by proactively participating in the session. To break language barriers, we will arrange volunteer interpreters. Further, we arrange Open Space in the second afternoon to discuss this Theme: "Facilitating The Future: What is trying to happen?" All participants will have an opportunity to initiate discussion around their perspective of facilitation practice. We will arrange conference weaving activity so during break time, participants get to gather in a creative setting.

Through this conference we hope to map out the future of facilitation in the Greater China Region.

Appreciation for the Committee and the Volunteers

Inheriting from IAF tradition, this conference is accomplished with tremendous volunteer efforts. All the committee members and presenters contribute their time and effort without charge. On top of that, they pay their own registration fee like other participants to come to the conference. The hope is to create a learning platform together. We hope our contribution will induce yours so in the future conferences more people can get involved. We envision the Chinese Facilitation Community contributes crucial perspectives and practices in the global facilitation field.

Special thanks to the presenters from local and international. Their generosity broaden our learning platform. We thank all the volunteers for contributing your time off work, conducting coordination, formatting guidelines, and implementing actions. Your contribution greatly enriched our community.

Should there be left over money, it will be used as seed money in promoting facilitation, especially in establishing Facilitation Association locally. Once we have a formal organization, the board will be responsible for the implementation. Possible methods of promoting the profession includes: provide scholarship to participate in International/Regional conferences and sponsoring international facilitators to present here.

Last but not least: your participation. Because of your decision to come and participate in the conference, the event soars. Let's explore the world of facilitation together!!

Sincerely Yours,
Laura Hsu
Representing the conference committee and volunteers October 2003