Clean Language Events

Connection

On 15 October 2022 we held the first Dutch Clean Language Event. It was exciting to put something like this together. With a first edition you never know whether enough people will come, whether it will be good enough, whether you’ll cover your costs, and so on. After all, alongside the venue costs — the beautiful, wooded Lunterse Boer — we had brought Penny Tompkins & James Lawley and Caitlin Walker over from England to deliver a keynote and workshops. And all those hours we had put into it…

Friday was the conference day and the theme of the conference was “Connection”. The fact that this was our first time showed not only in the beginner’s mistakes (starting marketing too late, offering too much) but also in the fact that not all workshops tied in tightly with the theme in terms of content.

But it was a fantastic day! The turnout was good, and the atmosphere was informal, warm and professional. People were in a learning mindset. Caitlin Walker kicked off with a collective Set-up and James Lawley closed with a lovely collection of all the different branches on the tree of Clean Language.

Afterwards, Penny Tompkins & James Lawley delivered a symbolic modelling masterclass for Clean practitioners on the Saturday. Finally, Wednesday was a day for facilitators with the theme: why do we ask questions? Keywords: depth, self-reflection, professional growth and connection. We definitely wanted to do this again!

Trust

The second event showed that we had learned from the first time. We had a tight programme (see below), which we had finalised well in advance, and we had started the marketing on time. This time we were at Hotel de Guldenberg in Helvoirt, and for the conference we had also brought over Nick Pole, a Shiatsu therapist and Clean Language body worker from England.

The programme was as follows:

Thursday 14-9: Masterclass on Leadership, by Caitlin Walker Friday 15-9: Bilingual Open Space (unconference) on all things Clean Saturday 16-9: Bilingual Conference on the theme of Vertrouwen / Trust Sunday 17-9: Supervised symbolic modelling, by Penny Tompkins & James Lawley All the days were wonderful, instructive and inspiring. We’d like to pause briefly on the Open Space day and the Conference.

The Open Space day was a great success. There was an enormous diversity of questions, sessions and workshops, so everyone’s needs could be met. The biggest worry we had was FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). After all, if you were in one lovely session, you couldn’t be in another.

The Conference ran in a structured way and on time, while at the same time we managed to keep a warm and informal atmosphere. For the first time we had a Dutch keynote speaker in Annemiek van Helsdingen, who gave her keynote in English because of all the international guests. We had therefore also split the workshops into two ‘tracks’: a Dutch-language one and an English-language one. This meant everyone could attend a workshop in the language of their preference. In addition, there was a fine variety of workshops so that everyone — coaches, consultants, body workers and trainers — got something out of it.

Patterns

For our third event we returned to the old nest: the Lunterse Boer! What was really nice is that this time we had an even more international crowd. Alongside American, British and Flemish guests, now also German participants! On top of that — perhaps because the third time really is the charm, but perhaps also because once you switch on thinking about patterns you start to see them everywhere — the theme recurred across all three days. We had also automated even more processes — thanks to Pascal — (time saved!!!), and the Conference day — thanks to Michael — earned accreditation points!

The programme was as follows:

Thursday 26-9: Masterclass on Choice points, by Caitlin Walker and Penny Tompkins & James Lawley Friday 27-9: Bilingual Conference day on the theme of Patronen / Patterns Saturday 28-9: Bilingual Open Space day on the theme of Experimenteren en ervaren / Experiment and experience We kicked off with something unique! For the first time in the Netherlands, Caitlin, Penny & James jointly delivered a masterclass. In it they beautifully combined both their shared knowledge and skills in Clean Language and their different domains (more group-oriented work vs more individual guidance). We became aware once again of how our own frame of reference steers our thinking and our curiosity, and what this means for the choice points we do or don’t have and experience.

The Conference day was once again kicked off by a Dutch keynote speaker. Okke Gerritsen of Phoenix Opleidingen shared how he looks at Patterns from both the Phoenix framework and the Clean framework. There was again a Dutch and an English track, and besides overlap in the speakers there were also fresh new workshop facilitators.

Having now experienced a Clean Language Open Space day twice, we have to say we are huge fans of this format. Perhaps next time we won’t run a conference day at all, but only an Open Space. The group was slightly smaller than the year before, which left even more room for genuinely individual questions and, even more than last time, there was connection and a deepening of the relationships between us.

Until the next one?