Participants:Index

Overview

Regardless of the topic or purpose of any event, our primary goal in all the meetings we help to convene is to establish an inclusive and safe and space in which participants can collaborate and build trust relationships that strengthen organizations, projects, networks and movements.

Central to this approach are our Participant Guidelines, which convey how all those present are expected to respect and interact with one another and within the meeting context.

Inclusive and Safe Spaces

Over the past 14 years, in collaboration with a range of partners from across the world, we have developed and evolved our Inclusive and Safe Spaces.

As a US-based NGO working globally, we strive to be mindful and avoid acting in ways that unproductively project our values and norms into other cultural contexts, communities or regions.

We approach our efforts to establish inclusive, safe and open meetings as an ongoing learning effort. We update our guidelines and associated processes whenever we identify issues or areas for improvement.

Participant Guidelines

The Participant Guidelines are a suggested set of principles that participants should agree to follow while attending Aspiration events.

The Participant Guidelines have played a key role in setting expectations and creating a safe space for sharing and exploration. It is recommended that the guidelines be posted on the event web site and emailed to registered participants in order to allow consideration and comments before the event.

The relevance of these guidelines is likely to vary by audience and locale, but the set provided here has been successfully utilized at events in the US, Europe, and Africa, and evolved accordingly. We strongly encourage feedback, enhancements and additions to these guidelines.

Participant Pre-Event Engagement Questions

We use some variant of Participant Pre-Event Questions as we engage participants and work to build event agendas.

These are best posed via phone or other audio channel, as participants share more in this context. Failing that, email is the next best method for soliciting input.