The Conference Environment

Getting the most out of this conference involves not just the number of sessions you attend, but your own intentions to be fully involved with other participants and the overall conference environment. We’ve also called upon the talents and special abilities of several people:

Linda Booth Sweeney provides the weaving and thematic integration throughout the program, framing and contextualizing the sessions to enable deeper learning and understanding. A researcher and systems educator, Linda has a doctorate from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, and is the coauthor of The Systems Thinking Playbook and the author of When a Butterfly Sneezes.

Michelle M. Boos-Stone is founder and principal of Gecko Graphics, a firm specializing in corporate Mindscaping™, the process of transforming ideas and concepts into powerful pictures, words, and key icons. As a presenter or speaker is talking, Michelle captures the “flow” of the session in bold, colorful images, while synthesizing thoughts and information, to help stimulate visual learners to understand processes and clearly see interrelationships. She is also a consultant and trainer and has done extensive work with companies in organizational learning, communication, culture change, and leadership development.

Loopers Galore!
One of the essential tools of systems thinking is causal loop mapping. To enhance the weaving experience, this year we welcome a team of experienced “loopers” who will share insights gained while creating loops of some of the plenary sessions. By identifying and making visible key feedback processes in the speakers’ talks, we hope to illuminate the interdependencies observed in the speakers' presentations.