26 September 2011 – Issue number 1

Welcome to the eternal city. Welcome to the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair and welcome to IFAD headquarters

Nine months ago, on a chilly January morning, the share fair steering committee and a group of other colleagues, met for a visioning session. At that meeting, we discussed the event's format, themes, audiences and agreed that we would organize an "out-of-the-box" event.

We did our best to live up to this commitment. And hopefully this is reflected in the Share Fair programme.

Considering that the inaugural session is on the second day, the cocktail is on the third day and it finishes on a Thursday, I guess we can consider the second edition of the share fair an "out-of-the-box" event!

But all kidding aside, as the saying goes, "the proof is in the pudding", and over the next 4 days we'll see whether we managed to live up to our vision. Rest assured that we put all our energy and passion into it.

An event about YOU and for YOU

Now we need YOU - we need YOU to make this a FUN and MEMORABLE event. Try to attend as many sessions as possible. Use the tent as a meeting point. Meet up and connect with people in the chill-out corner. Gather up your courage and use the speakers’ corner to share your thoughts and ideas.

We ask you to ponder on a fundamental question - what is the value and impact of such events. We want to hear your views and we’ll do so at the closing ceremony.

Anticipationby Nancy WhiteAaaaaaannnnnntttttiiiiiicccciiiippppaaaaatiiiionnnn. That is my theme for the last five days as I watched and participated in a tiny way in the preparation for Share Fair Rome, hosted at IFAD. Until you “peek behind the curtain” you have no idea of all the preparation going on, how many people, how many TASKS are involved! Then it all comes down to today when everyone arrives and the responsibility for success transfers from

HIGHLIGHTS

• 9:30 in the Italian Conference Room, Etienne Wenger, a globally recognized thought leader in the field of social learning theory, communities of practice and their application to organizations, will deliver a keynote address on “Communities of practice and strategic capabilities”.

• 11:00 in the Oval Room, Sam Dryden from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will present their agricultural development strategy and Kevin Cleaver will present IFAD’s Strategic Framework 2011 - 2015.

• 15:30 – 16:30 visit the chill-out corner and have a chat with Etienne Wenger.

• Take advantage of over 25 sessions training session to acquaint yourself with a wide range of knowledge-sharing methods and social media tools.

PROGRAMME CHANGE• Graphic facilitation session will take place

from 14:00-17:00 in the DINING ROOM.

SHARE FAIR WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCEOne of the trademarks of the share fair brand is social reporting. The share fair has a contingent of social reporters who will use social media (Twitter, blog, Facebook, Flickr, Blip.TV, YouTube, podcasting) to report live from the various sessions. We'll be using #sfrome. Tweeps.... you’ll have your 5 minutes of glory every time you tweet using #sfrome, as your tweet will appear on the beautiful twitter wall!

If you have colleagues who were unable to attend the Share Fair, please let them know that they can follow some of the sessions via webcast at http://sharefair.ifad.org. You can find the webcasting programme at http://www.ifad.org/events/sharefair/index.htm

the magnificent planning team to US, the Share Fair-ers. So here is my three steps to Share Fair participation magic. 1. Plan AND be prepared to be flexible. Scan the agenda and mark the “don't miss” sessions. Mark a few mystery sessions - things new to you that might open a new window of learning. At the same time, as you wander through the fair, watch for the unexpected. The gift of being surprised by something you didn't know you cared about or needed is fantastic.

2. Connect with familiar AND new people. Introduce yourself to at least two new people every day. Identify who you want to follow up with. Use that powerful method, the coffee break, to connect.

3. Share your sorry AND ask for what you need. While the structure of the Fair sessions offer certain content, we all have knowledge to share AND we all need other knowledge. Ask and offer at least once a day. And to those of you who for some reason think what you have to offer isn't valued by others, test that assumption and make more offers!

So the stage is set. As we thank all the Fair organizers, the responsibility now shifts to us. As online community guru Howard Rheingold likes to say “ what it is --> is --> up to us”. Let's make the most of it!

The story behind the session numberby Beate Stalsett

Browsing through the Share Fair programme you might have noticed that every session has a number, and you probably asked yourself: “what is the logic behind these numbers?” Someone asked me if it signified number of minutes of each session. Well, the answer is no. I believe that would have been very unfair to proposal number 1.There is a very simple logic behind the numbers.

As you all know by now, the Share Fair Steering Committee received 300+ proposals for this year’s event. 300+! We were thrilled by the number of proposals, and needed to have a solid system for keeping track of them when we were doing our thorough selection process. Patti (who I have voted to be the Steering Committee’s most structured person) suggested

immediately to give the proposals fixed numbers, and so we did. The numbers are simply the unique identifier for the proposals, based on the first list we received. Nothing more, nothing less.

When I think back of the first version of the Excel list, I am very excited and happy to see how our graphics team has shaped it into this beautiful programme that you are holding in your hands today. All these numbers, names, links and comments have been turned into a colourful, easy to read overview of the event. It should be easy to find and select the sessions that interest you the most.

#Sfrome tweets

On a personal note, what I am looking forward to the most, is to finally meet the people behind the names and numbers in this list who have been our companion for the last couple of months. I am looking forward to finally attend their sessions, and to listen to their stories in person. Taking this event from paper to reality has been an intensive but fun journey, and I hope the coming days will reflect this.

Why did I submit a proposal for the Share Fair ? Because I want to learnby Armine Tukhikyan

I come from Armenia, a beautiful country with high mountains, deep gorges and alpine meadows rich in ancient monuments and historical sites. However, the landscape is often spoiled with garbage scattered here and there. Plastic is a disaster: bottles and bags are everywhere in the countryside.

Waste management is not the strongest part of our municipal services. Indeed, waste is removed regularly in most of the urban areas, but what happens next is less encouraging.

We do not have recycling plants, dumpsites do not comply with international standards, and we lack waste separation facility and mechanism. And as you may imagine, the situation is much worse in rural areas.

In 2010, my organization, Urban Foundation made the very first attempt in Armenia to address this issue. We started with one community and installed special bins for PET bottles. We launched a massive public awareness campaign. And you know what, it worked! The municipality and other stakeholders welcomed and supported the initiative.

However, despite this first success, there are still a thousand question left to be answered particularly, how to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags. I will be sharing my story on 27 September from 16:00-17:00 in the Speakers’ corner in the tent. And I look forward to discuss waste management related challenges with my peers on 28 September from 16:00-17:00 in the Oval room.