WHEN ITS ON
Light on organisation, heavy on conversation
We host three different Converge online meet ups that current students and alumni are welcome at:
Emerging and Disruptive Technologies Converge: meets fortnightly on Tuesdays, 7.30am – 8.30am.
Tuia te kōrero Change and Leadership Converge: Date and time to be decided by you. Have your say by clicking here.
Contemporary Education Converge: meets on the last Tuesday of every month, 7.00pm – 8.00pm
EVERYONE IS WELCOME
Hosted by us, open to all
Although we host these meet ups, its open to be run by whoever wants to share and contribute. It’s your place, as learners and alumni engaged in change and innovation in your projects, your communities and your workplaces, to bring ideas, projects or challenges.
Converge is an ideal place to have robust discussion amongst a group of curious, open-minded critical thinkers to get feedback, ask questions, seek input or hear alternative viewpoints. Its non-hierarchical and democratised; everyone (and no one) is both teacher and learner.
And it’s completely free.
HOW TO CONTRIBUTE
Become a Converge Contributor
If you’ve got an idea, project or challenge you want to sound out with one of the Converge communities, this is your forum to do that. Whether it’s half baked or nearly done we welcome you join in and share.
Just register to participate as a contributor to the meet-up. We’ll get in with touch you directly to coordinate the best session for you to present at. See below for more on how the meet-up sessions will run each fortnight.
SCHEDULE
Upcoming schedule
Change and Leadership
We are looking forward to confirming our new 2023 dates. Check back again shortly.
Emerging Disruptive Technologies
Fortnightly online on a Tuesday, 7.30am – 8.30am NZT We are taking a short break and restarting on 14 February 2023.
Contemporary Education
The last Tuesday of every month, online, 7.00pm – 8.00pm NZT
We look forward to seeing you when we restart on 28 February 2023
HOW IT WORKS
How the Converge meet-up sessions work
The approach of Converge is to not over-organise it – it’s not an event, it’s a meet-up. The more informal and organic it can be, the more that genuine conversation and engagement will occur. That’s the idea. But to be worth everyone’s valuable time there is some structure to it.Firstly, it’s good to know there are different rhythms to the three Converge meet ups. When you join, you’ll receive a calendar invite from Judy Christie, Communities Manager, so you’ve got it locked in to your diary.Emerging Disruptive Tech Converge: meets fortnightly on Tuesday mornings, 7.30am – 8.30am.Tuia te Kōrero Change and Leadership Converge: TBC for 2023 Contemporary Education Converge: meets monthly on the last Tuesday of each month, 7.00pm – 8.00pm
We open and close with a karakia to bring everyone together into the shared space, and release them at the end. Anyone can put their hand up to lead this.
Let Judy know if you want to pose a question/contribute to the community so that she can pre-book a suitable day for you and give us enough time to prepare a email invite to the Converge community.
Sometimes, we will have an ‘open mic’ type of day, other days will be pre-planned.
Come with an open mind, and a willingness to engage as much as you are comfortable with.
House rules: creating a safe yet robust discussion space
Converge is designed to facilitate more opportunities for critical engagement with your community. The critical engagement component is core to this – we want this to help shine light on blind spots, open up perspectives and instil a practice of systems and impact thinking. But the approach must still align with our Te Ara Kotihi principles and values, underpinned by manaaki, rangatiratanga, pono and ako.To achieve this, we’ve set some house rules. Joining the Converge community requires you agree to these.
Respect others:
Interactions must be respectful and constructive. If you don’t agree with points made, you are welcome to voice your opinion but it must come with genuine intent to educate and enlighten.
Share to support growth of mindsets:
If you are sharing ideas or information to support another’s idea, be open with your contribution. Use appreciative inquiry questions to promote curiosity and open thinking. If you’re receiving input or feedback, do your best to keep an open mind to the contributions.
Share for the purpose of positive development:
This is not a forum to promote existing commercial products or services. It’s about ideation, the development journey and exploration of possibilities for wide reaching impact.
Be commercially sensitive:
To provide a safe space to share ideas, there is an understanding and a virtual handshake that any IP shared goes no further than the meet-up session. The forum is to grow and nurture ideas, ethically. If you want to collaborate or provide expertise to a Contributor, you will have the opportunity to make contact directly with them outside of the meet-up session (at the discretion of each Contributor).