Vitalising Community

Join us for a series of delicious community conversations, sprouting new relationships, perspectives, and contributions to wellbeing.

What is possible when people meet people as people, not as roles, titles or experts, to discuss the changes we're living through together?

The series consists of four sessions. It would be marvellous if you could come to them all because we learn and have more fun each time we meet, but you’re welcome to whichever works for you. The sessions are from 1-4pm on:

• Saturday 28 August
  Exploring “What is home in a changing world?”
• Sunday 26 September
  Exploring “What is culture in a changing world?”
• Sunday 31 October
  Exploring “What is success in a changing world?”
• Sunday 28 November
  Exploring “What is wellbeing in a changing world?”. This will be followed by an opportunity to consider how you may like to contribute to wellbeing, with the chance to form collaborations on projects.

All you need to bring is yourself, your curiosity and your stories. Everyone is welcome.

If you'd like water during the session please bring a drink container. You're invited to bring your own keep-cup for a cuppa too, and we'll provide some extra mugs just in case.

We are hoping to raise $4000 for a community in need. While the tickets themselves are free, please consider a small gift of $10 for each session you plan to attend, to help people in tough circumstances improve their lives. Together, at the last session, we'll choose which community to support then we'll pass on 100% of your contribution. Your time and presence will also be received as a gift, so even if you are unable to contribute financially we would love you to join us.

How will the conversations be held?

Each session will be a "Warm Data Lab". A Warm Data gathering is like the best after-dinner conversations you have ever had, with people you may have never met. Participants share their stories and observations about a common question, moving between small groups to explore the day’s topic from different viewpoints such as family, health, economy and more. Everyone moves whenever and wherever their curiosity takes them, listening to each other and sharing whatever occurs to them. In the last half-hour we come back together as one group and share what we’ve noticed and any insights we have gained.

A bit more background

“How do we think our way through the messes we’re in when the way we think is part of the mess?”

– Nora Bateson - Originator of Warm Data Labs

In these turbulent times many of us feel we are standing on unstable ground. Talking together in Warm Data sessions helps us see fresh possibilities for being okay within our changing world.

"I suddenly glimpsed a new way of seeing as I listened to someone else describing her sense of the complexities we all live in right now". It can be confusing to be in our world. We find ourselves confronted by challenges that include bushfires, droughts, social inequity, loneliness…and COVID-19 has shown us all how one tiny virus can change our lives completely.

You are warmly invited to a heartfelt, caring exploration of the changing world we are living in. We are no longer striving to see and make change; we are in it. One participant said recently "I'm leaving my first Warm Data session feeling joined with, sort of expanded, more hopeful." Another replied "I don't want it to stop. Putting your own words to something means you can hear yourself differently. You get to see what's important to you in the midst of everything".

People are welcome to stay and chat at the end of each session.

For COVID-19 safety reasons we request that at the event you:

• practice physical distancing by keeping 1.5 metres between you and a person not known to you and keeping close contact to under 15 minutes
  
  
• practice hand hygiene by washing your hands or using hand sanitiser
  
  
• if feeling unwell stay home
  
  
• be prepared to complete a contact register

Transport

The is street parking plus ample parking underneath the venue, accessible from Bradshaw Crescent.

Reference Information if you’re curious:

• "What is a Warm Data Lab?"
• Apple Podcast "TG15: Community, complexity and Warm Data (with Nora Bateson)", by The Gloaming
• "Finding a Way: Will Peoples' Responses to the Emergencies of the Coming Decades be Warm? Or Cold?" by Nora Bateson and Mamphela Ramphele
• Nicholas Tan's longer description of "My first warm data lab"
• An article sharing descriptions of Warm Data through several participants' perspectives
• ABC Radio Interview with co-host Fiona Brooks - Warm Data reference is at 24 minutes: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/perth/programs/focus/big-talk/12662076

Thank you

Special thanks to the City of South Perth for generously supporting this series, including providing the beautiful venue.