November 30 “stakeholder conference”

Stakeholder Conference
The Stakeholder Conference on Tuesday November 30th will be the most important event for Mancunians concerned about climate change for many a long year. Its format and delivery is the responsibility of the “Steering Group” (see below). In the previous month, the grassroots ‘Call to Real Action’ group has visited various campaigning groups to ask their opinions on what the opportunities and dangers in such a conference were (see calltorealaction.wordpress.com for more info). People were mostly worried about ‘death by powerpoint’ and it being just the usual suspects talking among themselves.
MCFly can report that the Steering Group has now discussed the Conference. The priority wil be to engage and interact with as many diverse groups as can play a part in both shaping the Action Plan, and in taking action. The event will take place in the daytime with the option of an informal event in the evening. A venue will be announced within the next 6 weeks, and people will be able to apply to attend (criteria not yet decided) approximately two months before the event itself, that is to say, late September.
The format will NOT be ‘death by powerpoint’ – there will be a small number of presentations in a plenary at the outset, but plenty of opportunities to talk to each other, learn from each other and feed back, especially to larger institutions like the Council, via workshops and facilitated peer-learning (which is more fun that it sounds.) The organisers of the Conference are also keen to capture thoughts and opinions before the conference and play these back on the day.
So, here is an opportunity for the Council and “Civil Society” to learn from each other. It’s now up to climate/social justice campaigners in Manchester to take this opportunity to use the space – physical and political – to best effect. Will they?