Steve: A warm welcome to all of you. It’s wonderful to see such a packed room. It may be the only sold-out conference in the world, in this particular month. 
   Many people have come a long way from countries around the world to be at this event. New Zealand, Netherlands, Denmark, Brazil, United Kingdom, Canada, San Diego, Boston and San Francisco. I’m probably missing some. But for all those who have made long journeys, a deep and warm welcome.
   We’re going to be talking about storytelling, one of the most ancient and powerful ways of communicating and being human. But we’re also talking about this as a bridge – a bridge to the world of organizations, in which most of us are deeply involved. 
   Today, we’ll be telling each other a lot of stories. We’ll be doing some talking, but actually, you will be doing most of the talking. So we’re very conscious of your stories. You come here with a lot of stories. We’ve been puzzling: how can we incorporate the stories that we all bring to this event? How can we incorporate them into the day? We’re also very conscious that this event will lead to new stories. We’ve given quite a bit of thinking on: how can we incorporate those new stories into what follows from the events of today?
   In getting to today, we have our stories - the stories of us, the six presenters. We wanted to share our stories with you but without taking up large amounts of time during the day. So we’ve prepared a booklet, and it tells our stories. We are six very different people. You’ll find in there the story of how each of us has come to this particular event today.
   We’ve also included the story of getting here. We described some of the fun of preparing this event. We’ve actually been working together for some months now. It’s rather like the Indonesian puppet theater where you can go behind the stage and see how the whole event is being put together. So we’ve included some of the preparation discussions, so you can take a peek behind the scenes and see how we came up with the plan of what we are going to be doing today. 
   We’re also aware that there are many stories of the global context. Stories about what’s going on in the world today are on most of our minds today. The country is at war, for instance. But we’re also aware that we can’t cover all these stories here. So we will have a story space over in the corner, where Seth will facilitate a discussion of any story that is not being covered in the plenary sessions.
   There’s also an on-line conference, where there is a rich discussion going on about various aspects of organizational storytelling. It’s at www.WorkingStories.org. This is one of the ways in which we can continue the discussion after today. There is also a luncheon get-together tomorrow, Sunday April 13, 2003, hosted by Lynne Feingold and the Golden Fleece group that we’ll be talking more about during the day.
   We’re also conscious that many people have contributed to the emergence of storytelling. Some of you here today were actually at the first Smithsonian event in 2001. The transcripts of those discussions, showing what these thought leaders contributed, are available at www.WorkingStories.org. The storytelling movement has come out of the Jonesborough festival which has been going on for many years. Complexity theory, scenarios – a whole lot of things have contributed to enable the emergence of organizational storytelling at this time. We’ve actually put together a partial chronology of how this has happened (see Appendix). We would welcome your help in completing the chronology. 
    The agenda for today has five modules. 

Welcome. 

This is a special event.

This is a special event because it is about storytelling, an ancient and powerful way of being human.

This is a special event because it is about organizations, the home of education, the home of health care, the home of government, the home business, the home of philanthropy.

This event is a bridge between the worlds: storytelling and organizations. 

You are part of this story... in ways we don't yet understand. We are part of this story... in ways we don't yet understand. This story is being told through our lives. 

This story is larger than us.
. 
This story is not finished being told.

Today a new chapter will be written here, in our gathering 

It's a mystery.

It's alive.

It's in you.

It's in me.

It's in this room.

And, it has been here since 
the beginning of time. 

Welcome.

Created by Seth Kahan, it draws on his experience in designing multi-cultural collaboration sessions for professionals. It flows from his research at the Center for Narrative Studies, as well as his experience in increasing the effectiveness of conventions, and presenting at numerous business conferences

The magic of Jumpstart Storytelling occurs when participants tell and listen to each other's stories, engaging the hearts and minds of their colleagues. It is a great way to begin a business gathering, involving everyone in the room. Ideas cross-pollinate, and rapport increases. The entire meeting comes to life in a way that naturally and predictably focuses the audience's collective enthusiasm on the business at hand through the participants‘ personal stories. Thus Jumpstart Storytelling establishes links between participants, and sets the stage for high performance.

Read what happened on the day in Jumpstart Storytelling

Alicia Korten’s session shows how stories emerge from – and give expression to – our roots and deeper values.  Whether a corporation, a public institution, an academic setting, a religious organization or a community – values are the bedrock that create lasting institutions and provide the compass for effective decision-making.

So how do we identify the values that will endure and provide clear direction and then get an organization to embody those values so fully that they permeate the day-to-day life  of the people within it – both in how they treat each other and what they project into the world?

Alicia worked for many years with traditional societies in Central America, which had developed decision-making models based on narrative principles.  In this segment we will hear how meetings were run in a traditional setting in Panama, and then see how these same principles can be applied in modern settings and organizations.

Read what happened on the day in Storytelling and Values

Read what happened on the day in Putting Story to Work

Read Paul Costello's commentaries on the day in Paul's Commentaries