What is the Story of Inclusive Competitiveness?

This story has been submitted by Peggy Holman.

Hosts:

Chris Corrigan, Harvest Moon Consultants
Andrew DeVigal, Agora Journalism Center, University of Oregon
Mike Green, ScaleUp Partners
Peggy Holman, Journalism That Matters

Hosting Org/Sponsor:
Journalism That Matters
Agora Journalism Center, University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication
ScaleUp Partners

Location (City or Town & Country):
Portland, Oregon, USA

Who was this World Café for (target audience):
People involved with increasing economic inclusion and competitiveness, including folks from education, workforce development, entrepreneurship, funding, and policy making. It was a part of a larger event bringing together people who care about the role of journalism in communities.

Purpose:
To connect people across sectors so that all get a greater appreciation of related efforts occurring across the region. We also said: "you may come away with new relationships, new perceptions and an idea of your own next step."

Number of people attending (approx):

100

Questions Used:

Round 1: Tell some stories about where you see this [inclusive competitiveness] happening in your community.

Round 2: Tell some stories about where you see this happening in other communities.

Round 3: How do we make more stories like this?

Impact:
The harvest included a clustering of insights: http://bit.ly/1OekSMM

The clusters:

* Listening (Listen to learn, not to tell)

* Building relationships (Connect with people who live in the community, know the history)

* Honoring community voice (Work together, as if our lives depend on it. They do.)

* Resilience/Celebrating community successes (Good stories emerge from authentic conversation with diverse groups of people)

* Inclusion (Nothing about us without us)

* Economic development (How does ED benefit ALL of the public?)

* Finding stories (Authentically pursue and tell the WHOLE story)

* Empowerment (Journalism as a way for community voices to be heard)

* Intentionality (Be transparent about what we value)

* Embracing discomfort (Create the time, space, platform for people to consider ideas and experiences they know nothing about)

* Accountability (Be part of an ecosystem)

We know of at least one story in the works at a traditional news organization. Prior to the event, no news organization was interested in covering the subject.

This cafe was part of a convening called Experience Engagement, which brought together journalists and community engagement people of all kinds to consider the question What's possible when the public and journalists engage to support communities to thrive?

The heart of the conference was in Open Space.

Conference web site: http://journalismthatmatters.org/experienceengagement/

Mike Green, who helped us organize the cafe, referenced it in this article: http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/15/americas-whitest-city-explodes-wit...