Nexus Conference Planning Meeting, 2/28/01, SF
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Nexus Planning Meeting Summary
2/28/01, San Francisco, SFSU Downtown Center
The purpose of this meeting was to expand upon the initial planning from the New York meeting of 2/15, and to frame a more coherent vision, mission, and audience for the next Nexus EQ Conference.
Two key goals: 1. Maintain and increase the collaboration with the idea that we are all workers in the movement together; create a mechanism where all "competitors" are all equally invited 2. Connect and support people around the globe who want to be a part of this work. – Josh Freedman
Participants: Claude Steiner, Lauren Vanett, Todd Everett, Anabel Jensen, Joshua Freedman, Bob Reese, Bruce Cryer, Howard Martin, Esther Orioli, Mike Walsh, Mike Nan Summers.
- Opportunities to talk, teach, learn, and network; in between times w. structures & gifts.
- Felt taken care of; felt experience of being in EQ environment; organizers, moderators, & staff modeling EQ. Organizers risk taking.
- Diverse group of people – a mixture of education, community/mental health, business that does not usually come together, and people were glad to be to have that change.
- Learning and collaboration rather than about commercialism and people selling their stuff.
- Breadth of topics that appealed to wide range of people, so they could engage in a variety of ways.
- Move from talking to doing. Importance of seeing practice in action. Nexus as the "practical application" conference -- less "What is EQ" and more on "do I have any?" and "How do I get more?"
- Underlying goal of increasing prevention & improving social issues.
- Conference is about getting people involved and providing them more tools and resources of how to do this work – and it is critical that people walk away better able to bring this back home to their biz, school, community…
- Global perspective, global vision, global inclusion!
- 1 days of conference for practitioners, and last day for public; people from 1st days facilitate the last.
- Tiers or tracks, people can come to different kinds of sessions; some tracks could be like a retreat within the conference. Possible tracks: educators, personal development, families, managers, and maybe even a day for teens…
- Theme ideas: Integration into community; building community capacity for creating emotional intelligence; creating a local grass roots EQ movement; creating EQ in all kinds of organizations -- schools, nonprofits, businesses. Empowering people to go and implement EQ.
- Resources exposition where participants could see what resources are available, vendors can show and demonstrate tools and resources, and also have ongoing hands on learning opportunities
- Alternative structures may be valuable: series of 1 day events; satellite / distance learning options; tied to creating a video. Need not be "either/or" – could plan for smaller events + bigger conference.
Nexus 2000 Delegates: About 1/2 from some kind of education, 1/4 from business, mostly either internal or external consultants, and then another 1/4 from healthcare, wellness, and community organizations. Majority were there as professionals.
Next Conference:
- Value in bringing in general public coming for personal benefit along w. practitioners
- Include other groups we did not reach who are dealing with these kinds of problems – law enforcement, community organizations, faith based groups – people interested in prevention
- Opportunities to include emotional intelligence for families & attract more people. The family is in crisis in our society partly because few families have been taught these tools and principles.
- Connect with museums & companies like Imaginarium & Disney to create a learning structures where people could continue to learn and practice these skills.
- Development of a center in a city, such as Oakland or Celebration, to serve as model program and start a network of centers. Partner with Universities, govt. agencies, and EQ practitioners.
- Share real success stories – what worked, what did not… generate models and also interest.
- Words "emotional intelligence" are not the core issue – the needs around managing emotions and relationships is forever.
- Bring prevention skills to athletic teams, boys clubs, and other places where kids learn social skills.
- Connect to existing networks.
- Model these behaviors for each other -- use and practice these skills to create our work and work of creating conference.
- Benefit driven; emotional attachment and personal connection
- Create a video, perhaps shoot @ conference.
- Conference as an "EQ Skunkworks" – where we really think and plan together what to do next.
- Invite partners to "buy in" to conference by pledging funds, advance purchase of tickets, etc. Look for additional partners, including HeartMath, Heartmath Institute, QMetrics, CSEE, Disney Institute, Committee for Children, and the Consortium for Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Look for Universities who want to join.
- Conference does not have to be in SF Bay Area.
- 2000 price range was $295-$895; want more scholarship. Corporate participants might pay more. Foundations and corporate sponsors might be willing to underwrite educators from their areas?
- Value national CEU accreditation; HeartMath may be able to provide CEUs for nurses; perhaps need APA too?
- Raise about $50,000 by 5/01
- It will be important to get support structures – in addition to sponsors, we need an advisory group and a "helper" group.