Conference maturation

An important question in conferencing is how to mature the power of a meeting to: (a) reflect the complexity of the external environment in an ordered manner (representation), to reflect about that environment (conceptual processes), and to reflect about itself (self-reference or self- reflexiveness); (b) focus the variety of perspectives represented, without destroying it in some simplistic formula of superficial consensus; (c) transform the issue presented, and the organizational groups which take responsibility for them, into new configurations of operational significance; (d) act or empower those represented to act, in the light of the level of understanding achieved during the meeting. The task is therefore to discover the nature of the "complete meeting" of the future, through which a new order may be brought into being.