Inaugural conference: Transition Town network is unleashed

The inaugural conference of the Transition Town network was yesterday, 31-May-07.

Photo: getting ready for Whoosh at end of day.

I've enclosed the programme below with some brief comments added - a full report will be coming soon but wanted to get at least something out to share this exciting day - over 80 of us squeezed into Ruskin Mill...

Photos: Aonghus Gordon opens the days, a sub-group explores more about moving forward Transition Towns, Oddie from Transition Stroud outlines where Stroud has got to and Rob Hopkins, from Transition Network makes the opening address.

There was a huge buzz and I feel very privileged to have been part of it - it was particularly good to hear Rob Hopkins speak - see his excellent blog here - I first came across his work in 2005 in Kinsale when I was looking for good examples of local plans for helping with Cainscross Parish Plan. See Kinsale stuff here. Anyhow the other highlight was meeting and hearing Richard Heinberg - I'll add a separate blog item on that.

Of course best of all (apart from the cakes) was meeting all those people from around the country - Isle of Man, Cheshire, Bristol, Totnes, Isle of Wight, Brixton, Oxford and more - wonderful to hear their stories - am now brimming full of ideas but also wondering about how best to proceed to ensure activities are sustainable!

9.00	Coffee, tea and mingling	Great opportunity to start getting to know some of the 80 plus others present - some 15 Transition Towns represented and a further 15 or more due to be 'unleashed'.
9.30-9.40	Welcome to Ruskin Mill – Aonghus Gordon	Aonghus, founder of Ruskin Mill Educational Trust (and Glasshouse and Freeman Colleges in Stourbridge and Sheffield) was our host on the day. Aonghus was instrumental in bringing Richard Heinberg over and "donating" him to this conference.
9.40 - 9.55	Opening address – Rob Hopkins	An introduction to Transition Towns.
9.55 - 10.30	Getting to know each other	Each Transition Town, city, hamlet, island and penisula gave a brief account of where they were at.
10.30 – 11.00	Break and refreshments	Wow are the cakes good at Ruskin Mill cafe!
11.00 – 12.40	2 Open Space Sessions	In Open Space for this and the next item 24 topics/questions were picked by anybody present and then that person would lead a discussion on that topic - anybody could join any one of those tables and participate or move onto another table.
12.40 – 1.00	Recap on Open Space	The two topics I got involved in were involving people who appear disinterested in these issues and then the question I asked was about how can we sustain the groups and avoid burnout - I'll add a blog later about these but also there will be full notes available from the day.
1.00 – 2.00	Lunch in the canteen: buy it or bring your own	The canteen is organic and very scrummy - soup, a huge roll and more cake!
2.00 – 2.45	Workshop 1 – Peak Oil briefing (Heinberg)	A chance to equip ourselves with the facts, figures and irrefutable arguments that'll convince even hardened sceptics that Peak Oil is a reality
	Workshop 2 – Post peak Healthcare	Running at the same time which I missed was Dr Pamela Gray, from Transition Penwith "health & medicine" group: industrialised healthcare and oil addiction; tips on how to build the health group in your own community; options for an efficacious post peak healthcare system. Also includes Dr Vav Simon, Isle of Wight, discussing resilient healthcare systems for the animals we breed for food, for working (shire horses, oxen) and for company (pets). Again write-ups will be available from TT Network soon.
2.45 – 3.30	Workshop 3 – CSA and food	Stroud is leading the country in sustainable (and profitable!) integrated community food systems. Could it work for your community...? Nick Weir led this workshop which I missed as I was at the Heinberg one at the same time.
	Workshop 4 – Relocalisation initiatives worldwide (Heinberg)	The topic was what can we learn from other communities around the world that are taking their own imaginative steps into the unknown to design a lower energy and more resilient future?
3.30 – 4.00	Break and refreshments	More cake! But first TT Oxford wanted to grab a 5 min video of my experiences and thoughts of Transition Stroud - feeling exhausted by now so hope my enthusiasm still came across!
4.00 – 5.00	The "12 First Steps" for a Transition Initiative	Rob Hopkins and TT Totnes gave an inspiring talk with many stories about the process - plus the 12 steps they have devised to help others- again these will be available soon - here are the earlier 10 steps.
5.00 – 5.20	Transition Network	A discussion on how the Network can support us and we can support each other.
5.20 – 5.30	Wrap up and closing WHOOSH!	All outside for a 'whoosh' and photos and more - the whoosh being a large circle and a load whoooooooosh - all filmed - infact a film is being put together of the day.