Cases? - Community Economic Development

[Larry Peterson]

Chris & Jay:  That's been my experience as well.  Four years ago I led an
community wide Open Space event for 350 people through OLE--Our Local
Economy. The organization fostered CED projects in various communities.  It
was largely an "alternative" organization with little participation by the
big government funders as they were pulling away at that point. The event
had meetings going on throughout the city of Toronto. The closing circle was
much smaller than the original gathering (more like 80 people) because it
was held during the day.  The topics were posted on a computer bulletin
board as well as in a central downtown location.

Some of the conversations took place in the various CED projects around the
city, others in the offices of supportive business people.  We head of three
business that were created on the spot, during the event. One by a group of
immigrant African women. Those were the most productive sessions.  The
majority of the 350 people who came were there to be entertained, so that
when a known "expert" put up a topic, that group was heavily attended and
there were good discussions, but few actions.

Hope this helps.

Larry

Larry Peterson
Associates in Transformation
41 Appleton Ave., Toronto, ON,
Canada, M6E 3A4
Tel:/Fax: 416-653-4829

lpasoc at inforamp.net
http://www.inforamp.net/~lpasoc