ACTO Conference

Good day! Can we have four minutes of your time?

Please take 3.6 minutes to read the following 900 words, then use the links below and send us an idea or reaction to all of it.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 2024 ACTO Conference, originally scheduled for 19-21 June will take a new form as a series of mini-conference events running from August 2024 through early 2025.

This announcement explains our decision and invites your contributions to build and participate in something new, built around the theme: Humans First

BACKGROUND – CONFERENCES REQUIRE A NEW MODEL

The global pandemic changed the way we gather.

Pre-COVID, professional conferences existed as temporary, constructed communities at a single location and focused on a single theme. Participants ate, drank, learned, and lived with their colleagues, briefly setting aside their “real world.” Learning from each other was as important as scheduled sessions. Most conferences followed this model.

Post-COVID, the ways people pursue professional development are more diverse and being redesigned every day. On-ground conferences are often smaller, and in many cases replaced or partnered with digital offerings.

A major upside of virtual is that EVERY conference can attract a global audience and at a lower cost to participants, e.g. no airfare, lodging, or travel time.

A significant downside is that we’ve lost elements of that constructed community. People arrive at the last minute, cameras off. Still immersed in the urgency of their real world – office backlog, laundry, kids to feed – they leave at the first possible minute. Networking is near zero. Participation by the third day can drop to 25% of first day attendance.

Yet we kept building virtual conferences using the old on-ground model!

WHAT’S EMERGING NEXT?

Tighter programming offered in partial day segments draws larger sustained audiences than consecutive full days. Partial day design better supports people joining from multiple time zones. Digital platforms offer more flexibility and inclusion options. Shorter workshops / webinars / community events are the new norm.

WHERE’S ACTO IN THIS?

After playing in the virtual space for four years, the ACTO Board voted to let go of the old model. We want to REDESIGN our community’s “conference” experience to meet your needs as they are today, not what they were before March 12, 2020.

At this moment in May 2024, we do not declare to know what the future needs to look like. We are certain only that it does not look like the past.

INVITATION TO CONTRIBUTE TO WHAT’S NEXT

Who are you?

• You’re a coach, a coach trainer, perhaps an owner / leader of a CTO.
• You support the evolution of coach training and the coaching profession to live fully into what we embrace in The ACTO Stand for equity and inclusion
• You love to learn. You love to learn in community.
• You are creative, resourceful, and wise (of course!)

We invite you to share your creativity with us as we REDESIGN our community experience(s).

Please read the following concept and take an action. Examples:

• Share an idea that emerged as you read this note
• Tell us you want to offer programming (e.g. speaking) for whatever is our new offer
• Volunteer to attend a meeting or two to help us move the ideas into a design
• Share with us something you’ve seen others do as a response to these challenges. It might be a better way to engage large groups, a topic or speaker you want to share with ACTO members, or a new platform or software you found more inclusive.
• Share your reaction to the outline below. Reply with a Thumb Up or Thumb Down emoji with one sentence to support your reaction.

THEME AND HIGH-LEVEL CONCEPT

We propose a year-long series of virtual community events built around a single theme. LIKE a conference but NOT a conference. Our working theme is:

Humans First:
Embedding Social Identity Differences
Into Coaching and Coach Training

We have declared ACTO’s distinctive difference / North Star / Southern Cross to be our embrace of The Stand. Listening from that perspective, we hear from many peoples that the white EU / US foundation of coaching and coach training is missing “something.” It’s missing the diverse experience, knowledge, identities, and cultural context of people around the globe!

Many coaches, coach trainers, and coaching schools want to eliminate that challenge for the sake of expanding how we define and train coaching.

Construct

We propose, therefore, that our 2024 / 25 “Conference” (whatever form it takes) builds everything from a base of inquiry into understanding more of what that global diversity brings to the coaching profession and how to expand that into more coaching spaces.

We’ve considered possible tracks:

• COACHING Identity Differences and Cultural Perspectives. Exploring what this is and how it looks / feels / sounds / breathes / dances
• TRAINING Identity Differences and Cultural Perspectives. Exploring and sharing how to deliver training that honors identity differences and rich cultural perspectives in students AND approaches to training students to honor identity differences and cultural perspectives in their clients
• Perhaps a third track around running the business of coach training. What do Marketing, Recruiting, Enrollment, Onboarding, Mentor Coaching, Staff and Volunteer Development look like if redesigned into a business that embraces Identity Differences and Diverse Cultural Perspectives?

Content

We’ve suggested that, in addition to an open call for speakers, we intentionally seek out coaches and organizations that already “get it” and have integrated “it” into how they coach / teach / operate and invite them to share what they’ve learned, for the sake of expanding the capacity of coaching.

Share Your Idea

ACTO “Conference” 2024 / 25

August + November 2024 and February 2025??