Focus: International Initiative Forum

Today I arrived in Dornach, Switzerland for Focus: International Initiative Forum. I was immediately struck by the care and love that had gone into the welcoming space. Participants arrived in a café called “My place“, where fresh, organic home-made sandwiches were served, and were conversations emerged through sharing coffee from a 2-person French Press. Over lunch the host and organisers discussed the collaborative and collective harvesting of the event, and I was inspired by what we imagined together.

Welcome to the city of Focus.

“We imagine the Goetheanum transformed into a city where different neighbourhoods will focus on different themes. These include, but are not limited to: New forms of higher education, campuses as places for sustainable development, social threefolding, art, music, inner schooling / self development, to name but a few. There will also be spaces for other existing initiatives, and for new initiatives to arise. And like any good city, Focus will also have its fair share of cafés and piazzas.”

Building on this concept of a city, harvesting and sharing takes place through the following actions:

A participatory daily newspaper

Small groups of harvesting come together everyday to co-design sections of a daily “City of Focus Newspaper” that get’s published the same day, and put up that evening. The groups focus on:

• World
• Fashion
• Sports
• Music
• Food
• Weather
• Cartoons
• Entertainment
• Puzzle
• Word of the day

Live Harvesting on Ning, Facebook and Twitter.

Next to the event community we meet online for sharing insights, thoughts, pictures through various social networks.

What does #focusforum focus on?

Journals

Each participants has a focus journal for notes and graphic harvesting. I will be sharing some of that harvesting with you during the week!

Focus Journal

Introductory Envelopes:

Participants put their picture, name and location on an empty envelope, together with their answer on three questions:

• What’s your focus?
• What are your skills?
• What do you really live to do?

What is your focus?

What do I do?

pietradelmundo is Pieter Jacobus Daniël Ploeg as social innovator, host, social media consultant, social gathering organiser and backstage event co-creator.

I facilitate participatory change processes and collaborative design sessions. I host and harvest conversations that matter in communities for social innovation and positive social change. In need for change?

I offer to be your guide in the social media landscape on the web. I develop personal and professional websites, blogs, online marketing strategies, social network presence and online collaboration. Want to be on-line to be more off-line?

I organise a wide variety of social gatherings. Conferences, meetings, camps, performances, festivals, theatre productions. I tend to co-create and co-imagine.