tayser
June 9th, 2005, 12:59 PM
AFR
Let's give it some thought
Bill Pheasant
8 June 2005
The world's intelligentsia is expected for a conference on thinking, Bill Pheasant writes.
When Karin Morrison and Jane Stewart approached a university in Melbourne to help promote the 12th International Conference on Thinking among academics, the response went something like: "I don't think we can help you . . . It is not our field."
Gobsmacked but undeterred, Morrison and Stewart secured the rights, garnered support and sponsorship from government and business, and have assembled an array of the world's intelligentsia for a $2.5 million, five-day event in July.
Six weeks out, paid-up registrations of around $1000 apiece have passed 1100 more than break even and their relief is evident.
"The call for papers has had responses from Uzbekistan, China, far north Sweden we want to know how they found out about it," Stewart enthuses.
The pair got together at the Seventh International Conference on Thinking in Singapore in 1997, and were so energised by the experience they decided to put in their own tender to the male Harvard-led standing committee to host the event. Outmanoeuvering South Africa and Hong Kong, their bid in a New Zealand hotel room in 2001 with letters of supports from the Bracks government and the City of Melbourne won.
Morrison recalls: "All these men were sitting in the boardroom some with computers and asking really hard questions, and I am thinking, 'Hey! I am a teacher. What am I doing here?' They asked 'Why Melbourne? What support will you get?' It was really intense."
Determination was their main weapon, they concur, finishing each others sentences like a married couple. The key to unlocking such a massive undertaking was through expert working groups and mentors.
"It has been very hard . . . and huge. We had run education conferences previously, but they were all pre-September 11. And then there was the whole bird-flu crisis. It has changed the way you go about business, there is no doubt. Public liability has changed completely. But also, how are people going to feel about travelling? About coming to an event with so many important people at one time?"
To the traditional business, innovation, science and education themes they have added peace and sustainability. Both women come from an education background and still hold down their full-time jobs.
"We are doing this outside work hours on a voluntary basis . . . because we think it is something really important," Morrison says.
"In 1997, in Singapore, there were 2000 delegates at the Thinking Conference which was opened by the Prime Minister and supported by the government as a chance to move further ahead, for Singapore to become a 'thinking nation'," Morrison says.
"It was the first chance I had had to hear and meet a range of leaders in fields other than education: a Confucian scholar, top businesspeople, scientists. [Jane and I] kept running into each other afterwards and decided to put in our own bid."
Four years later, the not-for-profit duo is ready to roll out an impressive global program, which follows the Alfred Deakin lectures and the Australian Davos Connection's Future Summit 2005, both held in May. The Thinking Conference will be fronted by Innovation Minister John Brumby "as part of a groundswell on innovation, creativity and thinking" for the state.
Thinking Conference speakers include lateral thinking "hat" Edward de Bono, a strong conference supporter over its 20-year history, along with neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield, Manchester United marketing supremo Peter Draper, organisational behaviour guru Peter Senge, Italian educational director for (province) Reggio Emilia, Carlina Rinaldi, astrobiologist Paul Davies and Belgian chief executive of multimedia advertising space AD!DICT, Jan van Mol.
The invitation rules are simple: no one gets paid for speaking, and all are encouraged to participate across the five days, a contrast to the typical fly-in, fly-out conference presenter. There are about 50 confirmed speakers to date, with submissions still rolling in.
Stewart was one of the first philosophy students at La Trobe University in the 1970s, having been hounded out of her preferred classes in physics, and is revelling in the breadth and depth of modern thinkers. She continues to champion learning from within the state education department.
Morrison, having been a primary teacher, now acts as an internal learning consultant at Bialik College in Melbourne's leafy Hawthorn. At some financial detriment, her other external work has been jettisoned during recent months as the conference occupies all spare hours. "I tell my children, 'In seven weeks I will have a life'," she says.
"Our focus is on learning and thinking, and how that continues right through a person's life," Stewart says. "We are certainly not sorry we have taken it on. We hope something lasting comes from it. Melbourne has its sport, its cultural festivals, but there is nothing that celebrates thinking and intellectual endeavour," Morrison continues.
"One of the real aims is to bring people from different fields together so that your thinking is enlarged and challenged. One of the strong elements for delegates is the networks: developing them and expanding them across countries, sectors and fields."
www.thinkingconference.com
Let's give it some thought
Bill Pheasant
8 June 2005
The world's intelligentsia is expected for a conference on thinking, Bill Pheasant writes.
When Karin Morrison and Jane Stewart approached a university in Melbourne to help promote the 12th International Conference on Thinking among academics, the response went something like: "I don't think we can help you . . . It is not our field."
Gobsmacked but undeterred, Morrison and Stewart secured the rights, garnered support and sponsorship from government and business, and have assembled an array of the world's intelligentsia for a $2.5 million, five-day event in July.
Six weeks out, paid-up registrations of around $1000 apiece have passed 1100 more than break even and their relief is evident.
"The call for papers has had responses from Uzbekistan, China, far north Sweden we want to know how they found out about it," Stewart enthuses.
The pair got together at the Seventh International Conference on Thinking in Singapore in 1997, and were so energised by the experience they decided to put in their own tender to the male Harvard-led standing committee to host the event. Outmanoeuvering South Africa and Hong Kong, their bid in a New Zealand hotel room in 2001 with letters of supports from the Bracks government and the City of Melbourne won.
Morrison recalls: "All these men were sitting in the boardroom some with computers and asking really hard questions, and I am thinking, 'Hey! I am a teacher. What am I doing here?' They asked 'Why Melbourne? What support will you get?' It was really intense."
Determination was their main weapon, they concur, finishing each others sentences like a married couple. The key to unlocking such a massive undertaking was through expert working groups and mentors.
"It has been very hard . . . and huge. We had run education conferences previously, but they were all pre-September 11. And then there was the whole bird-flu crisis. It has changed the way you go about business, there is no doubt. Public liability has changed completely. But also, how are people going to feel about travelling? About coming to an event with so many important people at one time?"
To the traditional business, innovation, science and education themes they have added peace and sustainability. Both women come from an education background and still hold down their full-time jobs.
"We are doing this outside work hours on a voluntary basis . . . because we think it is something really important," Morrison says.
"In 1997, in Singapore, there were 2000 delegates at the Thinking Conference which was opened by the Prime Minister and supported by the government as a chance to move further ahead, for Singapore to become a 'thinking nation'," Morrison says.
"It was the first chance I had had to hear and meet a range of leaders in fields other than education: a Confucian scholar, top businesspeople, scientists. [Jane and I] kept running into each other afterwards and decided to put in our own bid."
Four years later, the not-for-profit duo is ready to roll out an impressive global program, which follows the Alfred Deakin lectures and the Australian Davos Connection's Future Summit 2005, both held in May. The Thinking Conference will be fronted by Innovation Minister John Brumby "as part of a groundswell on innovation, creativity and thinking" for the state.
Thinking Conference speakers include lateral thinking "hat" Edward de Bono, a strong conference supporter over its 20-year history, along with neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield, Manchester United marketing supremo Peter Draper, organisational behaviour guru Peter Senge, Italian educational director for (province) Reggio Emilia, Carlina Rinaldi, astrobiologist Paul Davies and Belgian chief executive of multimedia advertising space AD!DICT, Jan van Mol.
The invitation rules are simple: no one gets paid for speaking, and all are encouraged to participate across the five days, a contrast to the typical fly-in, fly-out conference presenter. There are about 50 confirmed speakers to date, with submissions still rolling in.
Stewart was one of the first philosophy students at La Trobe University in the 1970s, having been hounded out of her preferred classes in physics, and is revelling in the breadth and depth of modern thinkers. She continues to champion learning from within the state education department.
Morrison, having been a primary teacher, now acts as an internal learning consultant at Bialik College in Melbourne's leafy Hawthorn. At some financial detriment, her other external work has been jettisoned during recent months as the conference occupies all spare hours. "I tell my children, 'In seven weeks I will have a life'," she says.
"Our focus is on learning and thinking, and how that continues right through a person's life," Stewart says. "We are certainly not sorry we have taken it on. We hope something lasting comes from it. Melbourne has its sport, its cultural festivals, but there is nothing that celebrates thinking and intellectual endeavour," Morrison continues.
"One of the real aims is to bring people from different fields together so that your thinking is enlarged and challenged. One of the strong elements for delegates is the networks: developing them and expanding them across countries, sectors and fields."
www.thinkingconference.com