What an incredible IMI! I have learned a great deal and was energized by discussions in the sessions as well as with colleagues I was meeting. The pre-conference workshop gave me an overview of current tools and jargon and participation in interactive games and exercises to get warmed up for the days ahead. Especially useful was an "item ranking matrix" which I can use in a variety of training situations to rank competing interests of groups and is very adaptable. I might add that the use of an inteculturally themed sample leturette would have enhanced learning more for me, rather than the monetary example used.






Session reflections:






Differing Cultural Perceptions of the Good


Richard Harris has such a warm and generous sensibility with his style and approach to this subject. It was validating to further understand the significance of basic culturally specific beliefs of very basic concepts such as what is good (or paradise) and how these differing perceptions can contribute to cultural conflict unless uncovered. I learned a great historically based and thorough avenue to be able to bring this discussion up for participant reaction. Well done Richard. Wish we had had time to hear more of his findings when using this technique with different cultural groups, multicultural groups, and regionally diverse groups. Does he have a paper describing these data?






Peacebuilding with Muslim Exchange Participants in a Post 9/11 World

What an incredible experience for Carol Radomski. Unfortunately I missed something. I was hoping to hear her findings in a format that I might apply to Muslim exchange students experiences in other situations. Perhaps I may need to read her dissertation summary for that kind of information. Is her summary (and program action ideas for future) available? The small group discussion of a case study was invigorating.






Keynote Luncheon - Michael Paige

Wish I could hang out with him daily just to catch his many fascinating insights and experiences. It was so refreshing to hear our history of the field with all the benchmarks so succinctly presented with humor and appropriate urgencies. I would love to read his reflections of whichever sessions he attended. Please let him continue to keynote often so we can continue to gain from his perspectives on the field. I believe Gary Weaver should also keynote more for the same reason. Ditto on reading Gary's reflections on sessions he attended. Actually, wouldn't it be exceptional to read a conference summary made up of brief conclusions by the presenters of each session highlighting any new ideas that came out of their session? Is that possible?






How Medical Tourism Treats Cultural Challenges

This one ended up not matching my needs so I popped out to try another session, got enjoyably waylaid in discussions in the foyer and by the time I got to another session I could not catch up to where they were. I should have taken a break or stayed in the first one. Learned that lesson.



Cross-Cultural Communication in Complex Emergencies


Let us continue to listen ... Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am so glad to have participated in this session. Since I do not currently work with AID related endeavors, I wondered how applicable this session would be for me -- Steve Hansch so accurately reminded me of the importance of continuing to update myself and others in the intercultural field, media, academicians, trainers, etc. of just what the humanitarian devotees are experiencing ... and how their experiences are evolving (and reinventing) post 9/11 and most excitingly post Bush. I especially appreciated Steve's insatiable curiosity with finding appropriate solutions to needs because that is also a personal raison d’être. This session reminded me again of the necessity of keeping our intercultural heads together on cultural competencies and always sharing experiences from the "aid" field. Baseball cap or helmet - the ever evolving question ... I am glad we have another window of opportunity to try to work on this question openly and transparently in the years ahead. Somehow I did not receive a handout from this session and would really be grateful to receive his power point to go back over and reexamine the many questions we discussed. Fascinating. Let us continue to listen ...





The World is Flat: The "What" & "How" of Virtual Leadership in a Multicultural Environment
Finally a chance to brainstorm about virtual teams. The literature and discussion were right on target. Glad to hear intergenerational challenges discussed in this context. Wish we could have had more time to fully discuss best practices. I would love to see Ursula's list of best practices she has discovered from her experience working in virtual teams and leading these types of discussions. Does she have such a summary?







Keynote Luncheon: Carol Bellamy, World Learning


She's great and has done so much for women and the field. While I was glad to hear her speak, it was so general that I did not gain as much new information as I had hoped.





Study Abroad for Global Engagement


Our sage Michael Paige - you go Michael. How exciting to finally have 50 years worth of formal data regarding study abroad! There definitely needs to be 2 follow up actions from this information: 1-seek funding for a control study of non study abroad students from the same time period and 2 - share results of the voluntary simplicity result to energy companies, health and environmental groups for future investment in study abroad.