Mtiririko… Flow and Commitment!
Seminar… We have a dream…
Mtiririko Conference South Africa
April 2014 - Program
Day 0 (the day before the conference)
Evening- Welcome and networking session.
- An overview and suggestions on how to make the most of the conference.
- The First Encounter: A highly interactive session connecting the young and the young at heart.
- This will be a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the diversity of the participants / attendees, organizers and trainers. We will start with a dancing exercise and enjoy the dance with the three basic rhythms of the world (by professor Jitske Kramer). These rhythms will tell you more about yourself, your new friends and about the different ways in which people in this world work together.
- Performance led by Gerard Vonk,' artist in residence'
- Meeting with music, dance and stories to get to know each other better.
Day 1
Optional before breakfast
- Yoga for all levels of proficiency or a nature walk to provide relief from stress or stiffness
Morning program: Building our community
Morning program: Building our community
- Opening plenary session: “How can we look at life’s challenges as opportunities and find the courage to face our problems ”. A session to further elaborate the relationships and the collaborative energy of the previous evening session to get to know better your fellow participants / attendees.
- Creative thinking and creative communication techniques: Get inspired by the empowering exercises and by the effective ‘cross-the-line’ method ,training for schools and communities. These exercises help opening up and identifying important professional and personal issues. It will help to set goals for the next days.
- Peer groups and buddies: Next to that we will ask you to form peergroups and choose buddies to share with and support each other, during the conference and hopefully also thereafter.
- Three interactive workshops to identify the resources, talents and known solutions by combining expertise. We will work with different techniques to look at the same problems from different angles and create more fruitful perspectives. This will allow to create a wide range of new solutions and insights. All problems are solutions:
- Workshop 1 will focus on systemic and personal power approaches
- Workshop 2 will focus on creative and analytical approaches
- Workshop 3 will focus on theatrical and directors approaches
- Outcome: Collecting surprises
- Creative presentation of the most important new insights and discoveries of this day.
- Performance by Marcel van der Pol, artist in residence
- The evening program will be facilitated by the new ‘evening committee’ of participants who volunteered for this task with help of the organization.
Optional before breakfast
- Yoga for all levels of proficiency or a nature walk to provide relief from stress or stiffness
Morning program: Creative Connecting Carrousel
- In a carrousel of 3 mini workshops we will share practical ways to create empowerment and also find solutions for the issues identified on day one . We will choose the best suitable techniques, including:
- The systemic approach: constellation work.
- The creative approach: mind mapping, hypnotic suggestion, playful games to find serious insights, De Bono’s thinking hats and lateral thinking.
- The artistic approach: playback theatre, solutions by means of archetypes, using music or other art forms.
Afternoon program: “Resourcing the Future” expedition.
- We will go on an expedition to a nearby prehistorical location. We will use the paintings and the old roots in our program as one of the inspiring starting points to reconnect with possibly forgotten talents and resources. It’s a beautiful part of the conference that can create powerful insights and awareness.
- An introduction to enjoying the “World Café” methods to take home. This attractive method will enable you a.o.to collect contributions and ideas of every individual, even in large groups. People build on eachother ideas. The evening committee will set the stage for a great evening to meet old and new friends.
- Performance by artist in residence: to be announced by the evening committee.
- Closing Night Dance (from various continents) and Music Party
Day 3
Optional before breakfast
Background
Optional before breakfast
- Yoga for all levels of proficiency or a nature walk to provide relief from stress or stiffness
- The content of this morning will be based on the practical questions and personal wishes of the participants and what they want to take home for the next step. We will combine all the knowledge and skills available to meet these questions and wishes.
- An interactive session allowing attendees to explore ways to live their values. Everyone will give a short presentation of his future steps after this conference. This will be presented and celebrated in the peergroups.
- Closing plenary ceremony for sharing thoughts and say farewell.
- Sharing personal and professional highlights, experiences and thoughts in the big Mtiririko Closing Circle. We will celebrate this milestone together.
During the conference there will be a:
- Wall of Fame: For every person there will be a poster with their picture on it, everyone can write down their appreciations for this person during the seminar.
- Wall of Solutions: There will be a wall where everyone can put questions or problems they would like answers or solutions for. Everyone will be invited to write down their suggestions.
- Best Lessons Learned Book: Everyone will be interviewed by students about one best practice and one best failure. This will be shaped in a booklet for everyone and a digital version. This learning book will also be used to share with colleges and sponsors. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new” (Albert Einstein).
- Supporting Network: At the beginning of the conference we will create a network of buddies and peergroups. During the conference there will be moments to share items with your buddy and your peer group and give each other support. We hope these networks will continue to exist after the conference.
====================================================
Background
Mtirriko! We are a group of six highly experienced Dutch consultants and trainers wanting to organize a three day seminar in South Africa. The main goal of the seminar will be to inspire people, to support those who work in townships and contribute to the development of their community.
We all have our own specialization and expertise to share and make a contribution to the whole. We know each other well professionally and often collaborate on different projects.
Our workshops aim to empower the participants. More specifically, our goals are:
- To favour ‘self-regulation’, a well-known notion in top-class sport.
- To supply people with the instruments and knowledge to become more and more the ‘art director’ of their own lives and situation, empowering them to realise dreams, find solutions, and overcome challenges.
- To strengthen people’s entrepreneurial qualities so they become more effective, believe in their own talents and abilities, and enjoy them.
- To keep it simple, making every tool as easy and straightforward as can be.
The contents of the seminar will be highly practical. The participants will get a good understanding the contents and will be able make their communities profit from it immediately. People will learn to change their perspectives, find new and fresh solutions to important issues, innovate, and discover chances and opportunities.
Together we will try to find new ways to deal effectively with major problems such as HIV, diabetes, drugs, orphanage, crime and conflicts. How to create intrinsic commitment of the community in projects will be one of the issues. The combination and integration of different expert skills may lead to completely new insights.
Balance in giving and taking…
The seminar will create synergy: everyone is a student, we all learn from one another, and every participant will also be a teacher. We (from Europe) are eager to discover African ways of dealing with problems, to develop new talents and enjoy and activate our resources.
This will be an accessible 3 day seminar, with plenary sessions and several parallel smaller workshops to practise and deepen the newly acquired knowledge. The seminar and workshops will be (inter)active, dynamic, practical and personal in a constructive, positive atmosphere.
During this period of preparation and development, we want to build a fruitful form and program together with the people interested and future participants to integrate important needs and wishes.
Basic principles and goals
- Conceiving problems as opportunities
- Uncovering resources, talents and confidence
- Empowering participants with new skills and experiences to bring along to their communities.
