Rosemarie Somaiah’s Opening Story from Origins 2010

SEPTEMBER 2010

9 September: With around 140 participants, Origins 2010 has been a thrilling success! "I had a wonderful time, learnt a lot and am overwhelmed by how much more there is to learn" and "the speakers were real and eager to share their experiences – it was like being in a community of practitioners exchanging tips and knowledge" are fairly typical comments from the feedback we have been receiving. Check out the conference photos at Flickr!

AUGUST 2010

19th August: Just over 3 weeks to go! We have a couple of exciting new case studies added to our programme from Australia (capability building in natural resource management) and South Africa (evaluating a community health programme). All registrants get a personal login to the private area of this website to preview the conference materials and decide which case discussions and techniques sessions they want to participate in. Visit our Registration Page for more details on how to register.

JULY 2010

15th July: only 2 weeks left for Early Bird registration! Get your registrations in by 31st July to enjoy our early bird rates. You can visit our Registration Page for more details on how to register.

The conference organisation is coming together nicely, and we are hoping to be able to display a range of storytelling resources as well, with support from John Wiley and Corban & Blair so far.

JUNE 2010

Registration for Origins Asia Pacific 2010 is now open! We have secured the very aptly named "The Legends" at Fort Canning In Singapore as our conference venue. Please visit our Registration Page for more details on how to register.

Members of iKMS and the Storytelling Association of Singapore get special discounts! Early Bird registrations end on 31st July.

APRIL 2010

Victoria Ward, founder of Sparknow, will be our keynote speaker at Origins.

Since establishing Sparknow in 1997 Victoria Ward has been at the forefront of the use of narrative techniques in organisational settings.

Internationally, she was co-author of the acclaimed Story Guide: Building bridges using narrative techniques commissioned by Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation; led the development of a set of oral histories and a story competition for Islamic Development Bank; and recently completed a substantive assignment for Asian Development Bank that entailed the creation of a Living Archive (a book, a cd and a set of reusable audio clips) to enable the organisation to see itself more clearly.

Victoria has recently returned from Darfur on a mission with World Health Organisation to develop a information and knowledge management strategy for emergency response developed from first hand accounts of field experience.

Closer to home in the UK Victoria's recent work includes developing a set of business narrative workshops for the The Audit Commission, creating a set of innovative communication tools to deal with organisational change, and concluding a two year narrative enquiry into the possibilities for greater knowledge transfer and innovation between businesses and the museum, library and archive sector in London. A final independent evaluation found that "the knowledge transfer programme was innovative, willing to take risks, and leveraged an impressive amount of input from a relatively limited investment."