Vicki Robin on Conversation Week and the art of hosting

This week is Conversation Week.

I’ve known Vicki Robin for a few years now.   She’s a lovely, lively and curious soul, not shy about standing up and taking responsibility for leading shift in the world.   She developed the Conversation Cafe methodology, and conceived of Conversation Week in 2001.

Vicki was with us at the Art of Hosting on Whidbey Island in January, where she did something I’ve never seen before.   She stepped out of her own methodology and facilitated an Open Space gathering.   She was skeptical about Open Space, not having had great experiences in Open Space gatherings, and she is a developer of process, and in my experience, those who have devoted their lives to developing and polishing methodologies rarely step out of their cherieshed processes and try something new.   Vicki held space beautifully for us and was incredibly generous with the group about her learning and observations.   I have never seen a person so closely identified with one methodology step out and practice in another one.   It was really very cool.
You can now hear for yourself some of these observations and learnings from Vicki’s many years of experience.   She recently produced a short podcast on Conversation Week and the art of hosting, which is a lovely summation of the role of a host and ways that you can host everywhere.   This is a great way to get into Conversation Week and contemplate a deeper practice of hosting.