2004 Pre-Conference
Tuesday, July 6 evening - Wednesday, July 7

Mary Alice Arthur from New Zealand writes that, "Things are moving along for the Storytelling in Organizations Pre-Conference!" And, it is just sounding more interesting as we move toward July. On the evening of Tuesday, July 6th, we will experience the cutting edge theory and practical business applications for stories from Dave Snowden, head of IBM's Cynefin Center for Complexity.

But that will just be the beginning of our adventure. In the morning of July 7th we will start our interactive day of learning, thinking, investigating and sharing with "The Great Exchange" - which will feature facilitated small group meetings where participants will exchange business cards and talk about their areas of interest. This will be followed by the "World Café - the Field of Organizational Storytelling" where during discussion groups, we will discuss all aspects of the emerging field.

Richard Stone of StoryWorks will present The Future of Storytelling in Organizational Life. Read all about his impressive involvement with organizational storytelling in the following newsletter article.

We will wind up the morning session with a "Storytelling and Technology" panel discussion - which will be continued into the first session after lunch. Kevin Brooks writes, "I think the panel will be fascinating, as all three panelists come from industry and are concerned with different applications and methods of story creation." The panel will include Jack Park who creates software algorithms for complex gaming systems, particularly in multi-user virtual reality environments. Dave Snowden, our knowledgeable Tuesday night speaker, will also take part. And, the third panelist will be Po Chi Wu, who is a California based venture capitalist currently co-directing a software company called StoryManager, that produces story generation assistance software for business execs to help them clarify vision, improve market position and manage communications implementation.

The rest of the afternoon will consist of a choice of intensive workshops. We will highlight the presenters and their topics in the next SIO SIG Newsletter (May/June 2004). Keep tuned!

Just remember that this is the pre-conference for the rest of the National Storytelling Network Conference that starts the Wednesday evening of July 7th and ends at noon on Sunday, July 11th. Mark your calendars now for this special week in Bellingham, Washington, this summer. You will be glad you did!

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