Skin cream vs. the heart
How are we doing, you might ask. Well, I am of two minds. I believe that, as congress participants, we are genuinely doing well. Lots of contacts are being made, lots of talking amongst potential partners, lots of initiatives being launched. But I will be frank and say that the format of major UN conferences needs a facelift. We need a new way of dialoguing. I know I said this in my previous blog but I feel as though I was not forthcoming on the solution.
My solution is to force participants to get to the point. We seem to rehash very superficial statements over and over again. We need to get to the core of the discussion. No more PowerPoint presentations without a counterpoint. It's not the participants' fault, it really is not. I can tell that all want to get deeper into discussion. It's the format. We need moderators that are willing to confront the speakers. We need speakers that want to disagree, or not. But they need to seem to be working towards solutions, not just stating the problem.
For instance, in the interest of getting more speakers 'in' we end up doing 20 minute sessions with four speakers. If you include introductions, niceties, technical glitches, you end up with 3 minutes per person and no time to debate. Also, if you give speakers too much freedom to talk about themselves or their organizations, there too, you get into a monologue that people shut out and walk out on. Last but not least, is when you ask a speaker to address the 'problem'. This presentation tends to manifest itself as a simplistic overview of the problems that most people in the room already know. Take the case of this World Urban Forum. I don't think that any of the 18,000 participants need to be reminded of the basic urban issues. Maybe reminded, but not told in some 30-minute PowerPoint. I think that we can skip that part and get right to the specific problem or solution with which the speaker is most familiar.
I'm looking for a name to this new type of speech or presentation. How about a 'Single problem, single solution scenario'? If I had to do one of 'those' I might indeed pick a single problem, propose a single solution and then open up the floor to debate. Or how about a 'One to one hardtalk session'? I steal the 'Hardtalk' concept from the BBC, but it works. We need some presentations where rather than try to flatter the speaker as though she or he were an untouchable dignitary, that we grill them. I want to know the truth, the hard truth. I want questions asked and I want answers. In fact, if I think about it, I believe there are no sessions, except for the press conferences, that are moderated by professional journalists. Why not? That might, indeed, be a means of getting to the heart of the debate rather than continuously applying skin cream.
This said, I'm happy I came because I met with some people that brought me some genuine ideas and solutions. Now I have to pack my bags and get ready for my next global conference some time in April… hope it'll be a little cooler.
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