A new and refreshing facet in this year's ARM agenda was the inclusion of a World Café session. The session, designed to serve as a simple yet powerful method for creating meaningful and cooperative dialogue around questions participants perceive to truly matter, proved to be an exciting and challenging experience for most participants. Gathering in groups of small- to medium-sized groups for no longer than 30 minutes at a time, ARM invitees were left to participate in any one of 13 ongoing conversations, before moving onto to a new conversation at each 30 minute interval. As participants moved around the room, conversation topics developed, twisted and turned, with participants crossing-pollinating ideas and discovering new insights into the subjects chosen for discussion, as listed below:
1. Induced crop mutants: Vital genetic and genomics resources (Host: Chikelu Mba)
2. The role of small and medium-sized enterprises in realizing GCP’s mission (Host: Dinesh C Joshi)
5. Regional hub lab for NARS: Is it necessary? (Host: Nollie Vera Cruz)
6. Molecular breeding for developing countries: Is it worth it? (Hosts: Jean-François Rami, Robert Koebner)
7. Diversity Array Technology for GCP crops (Host: Andrzej Killian)
8. Next generation sequencing technologies (Host: Pablo Rabinowicz)
9. Capacity-building in Phase II (Host: Stanley Wood)
10. Can we manage drought phenotyping as a service? (Host: Glenn Hyman)
11. NARS and breeders’ needs driving GCP’s Phase II: Dream or reality? (Host: Philippe Monneveux)
12. Crop platforms: are they a good instrument to ensure impact after the GCP? If so, how? (Host: Mathias Lorieux)
13. Should GCP consider a deeper engagement in advocacy? (Host: Theresa Fulton)
The relaxed and informal tone of the session allowed participants to comfortably exchange views and ideas, greatly facilitating the knowledge-sharing essence lying at the heart of the World Cafe concept. The success of the session can in no small way be attributed to our 13 hosts, to whom we extend our deepest thanks.
To learn more about the main principles and history of The World Café, please visit these websites:
