A new thinking emerges

Some people I respect recommended that I check out a preview of an international youth conference called Emerge!2010, so on March 25 I drove over to a restaurant in Diliman called Adarna to see what it would be like.

I arrived about 15 minutes late. Luckily, the event also started late, so I had more than enough time to eat my fill from a delicious buffet of traditional Filipino cuisine for merienda in a little open courtyard with a fountain near the middle.

Emerge! was introduced as an intensive, peer-led boot camp in social technologies from April 24 to May 2. Most of the activities will be at Camp Explore, located at the Mount Purro Nature Reserve in Antipolo. Social technologies are technical frameworks that can help facilitate processes among people. Emerge! intends to create spaces for the participants to come together and share what they can. Much of the content will come from the participants, with facilitation conducted by mentors like Joey Ayala, Orland Bishop, Walter Hahn, and other co-facilitators from Germany, Canada, and the United States. Creating dialogues about current events and the world today was part of the conference’s goals. Drawing from the social three-folding model of business, politics, and culture, these social technologies would help civil society “awaken cultural power,” which would “let emerge a new kind of governance.”

The social technology previewed was the VisionCafé, a conversational process that aims to create dialogue through questions. The attendants were divided into small groups of four or five and given a rock, a large piece of paper, and drawing materials. Questions were to be asked, which groups would discuss. When the discussion for one was finished, a group leader would then bring together and synthesize the ideas that came out of it. Then the next question would be given.

There were three questions: who are you and why are you here (two in one), what are you passionate about, and if there were no limitations whatsoever, what kind of Philippines would help you realize your passions?

The rock was called a “speaking stone” and only the person holding the rock was allowed to talk. When the speaker was finished sharing, he passed the rock on to the next person in the group. Writing or drawing on the paper was optional. At the end, the leaders presented what was discussed in their group to all those in attendance, which in turn sparked even more discussion that lasted far beyond the scheduled time.

The timing of this conference is important, according to Ica Fernandez, one of the organizers. She claims “there’s a very strong clamor for transformation at this time, an energy that’s surging both in the Philippines and in the world at large, and it would be cowardly not to answer that call.”

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For Philippine participants, cost per head is P8,500 with the possibility of reduced price or a free pass for the needy. For more information, visit www.emerge2010.tk.