‘It’s incredible how many practitioners there are around the world’
Appreciative Inquiry pioneer anticipates upcoming global event
Wednesday September 9, 2009 -- Jennifer Higgs
Ada Jo Mann is looking forward to the World Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Conference in Nepal this November, and says the movement is worldwide so now is the time for the conference to go global as well.

Though this will be the fourth conference of its kind, the 2009 World AI Conference marks the first time the event will be held outside of the United States.

Having this year’s conference in Nepal gives those who live in that area of the world a better chance of being able to attend the event, says Mann, partner with Innovation Partners International and World AI Conference international advisory board member.

“It’s really great to be taking it overseas, it’s incredible how many practitioners there are around the world,” she tells Axiom News.

Imagine Nepal, an initiative to design a positive future for Nepal and the Nepalese, is hosting the event. Appreciative Inquiry, a strengths-based based holistic approach to change, has taken off in Nepal and is being used in dozens of nationwide programs empowering its citizens.

“There are lots of AI enthusiasts in Nepal and that will really add to the flavour and success of the conference in general because there is so much endorsement of AI,” says Mann.

Mann says the conference grew out of work that she and David Cooperrider, Weatherhead School of Management professor, collaborated on in the early 1990s.

Cooperrider and Mann wrote an unsolicited proposal to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and received a seven-year grant to the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

The resulting program was called the GEM (Global Excellence in Management) Initiative, which involved working in partnership with private and voluntary organizations for capacity-building programs to promote organizational development. The initiative ran from 1994 to 2001.

As the program came to an end Cooperrider, Mann and 20 other people formed an organization called AI Consulting to lift up the organizational development method globally.

AI Consulting members, who are co-owners, hosted the first international World AI Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2001. Since then conferences have been held in Orlando and Miami.

Mann is co-leading several workshops at the conference, including Neighborhood Centers Inc. Lifts Voices to Vision: An Appreciative Journey, featuring the journey of a Texas non-profit human services agency; Practicing AI Everyday: A Collaborative Learning Conversation, a mini-workshop that looks to expand capacity for collaboration; and Compelling Conversations for Families and Communities, inspired by a book on positive family dynamics Mann co-authored.

Mann says she does not have any specific outcomes in mind yet for this year’s event but is sure something exciting will emerge.

“Something exciting always comes out of putting a bunch of people in the room from around the world and inquiring into what’s the best that we might envision for the future,” she says.

The 2009 World AI Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, is Nov. 16-19. Visit www.2009worldaiconference.org for more information and registration details.

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