From Sarajevo to Sydney (via Bratislava)

Hotel Holiday, Sarajevo

The Congress Hotel Holiday, an iconic building in Sarajevo, is used to host conferences. And lots of them. People from different fields frequently gather in the hotel’s beautiful premises, listen to the latest developments of the issues they are interested in, meet their peers from all over the world, share their own news and views, have fun and then return home to their daily routines.

However, dialogical conferences (at least from my experience), have an extra level. As a participant of the 7th International Conference on Dialogical Practices, I certainly also listened, shared and had fun. But when I got back home, it was hard to return to my daily routine because I was not the same person anymore! I was changed.

At home

First and foremost, being in Sarajevo is a transformative experience in itself. Vulnerability and courage, pain and hope, acceptance and resiliance are materialized in the streets of this city and in the faces of its inhabitants. Just the realization that you are walking through the streets of a capital city that resisted the longest siege in modern times and where the First World War began is immensely powerful. 

Armina Cerkic (Mentis) and Martin Novák (NDP) launching the conference

Secondly, the organizing team, represented by Bosnian organisation Mentis, together with the Tavan association supported by Network for Dialogical Practices created a space where the stories of the Bosnian history were subtly mixed with stories of hopeful dialogical ventures around the world. And this space was truly dialogical with the inclusion of diverse voices, space for reflections and respect for everyone - not only for those who were present but also for those who were not there.

The atmosphere was reminescent not only of previous dialogical conferences I had attended, but also of something I remember from my childhood. At the end of every trip abroad with my parents, when we crossed the border, I would enter the first local store in my country just to walk around and enjoy the familarity of the products, the faces, the equipment, the language. And this was the feeling I experienced at the conference in Sarajevo. I was at home.

Dialogues across fields

We are uploading the materials from the conference to a separate space at this website - you can find it here so let me only summarize the main plenaries.

On the first day, Tom Arnkil and Kai Alhanen offered a way how to create dialogical space in situation where no dialogue seems to be possible.

Second day, Jaakko Seikkula introduced their amazing and famous development of Open Dialogue in Finnish Western Lapland and then Justine Van Lawick shared her memories of working in Sarajevo just after war.

On the third day, Peter Rober brilliantly described difficult situations in family therapy where conflicts and heavy emotions are at stake. Then, Dubravka Trampuž and Maja Rus were bringing other stories from Sarajevo. Finally, Niels Buus focused on the role of power in dialogical practice.

The conference was ended by Harlene Anderson and Rocío Chaveste Gutiérrez who not only talked about collaborative-dialogc practice but they showed it at spot in their relationship and dialogue.

Same mycelium

This last plenary session was the most important for me not only because I was one of the moderators and came up with the idea of inviting Harlene and Rocio, but also because I  consider their presence to be very important for our entire community on a much broader level.

To use a mycological metaphore, the collaborative-dialogic practices pioneered by Harlene Anderson and Harry Goolishian grew out of the same mycelium as the dialogical practices represented by Justine Van Lawick, Peter Rober, Jim Wilson and Jaakko Seikkula. The original mycelium was largely nurtured by Tom Andersen whose role was partly taken over after his death by John Shotter, who infused the entire mycelium by his intellectual clarity in many of his writings. 

Both collaborative-dialogic practices and dialogical practices developed and nurtured networks that allowed the mycelium to spread further and create a wider community in different territories. While Harlene Anderson and many colleagues from America (including Rocio Chaveste) are spreading the connection mainly on the American continent, the base of the dialogical network was Europe.

Perhaps in connection with the global success of Open Dialogue, the originally European network began to spread all over the world and some confusions started to arise, not only on a theoretical but also on a very practical level. For example, in the Czech Republic we organize trainings in both collaborative-dialogic practices and Open Dialogue and potential participants frequently hesitate which one to choose.

Inviting Harlene and Rocio to Sarajevo was one way of responding to these confusions.

Two networks, one community

When we started discussing the Harlene Anderson's and Rocio Chaveste's participation in the Sarajevo conference, I attended a meeting of the collaborative-dialogic network. After we discussed the connections and differences between the two networks, Harlene said something that stayed on my mind.

"I don't see two networks. I see one community that is fragmented."

I immediately realized that we are indeed one community. One great diverse community that has been spreading across the planet in the last years and, in my humble opinion, can be very beneficial for the planet. Maybe it is difficult to give a name to the community, but as I experienced in Sarajevo, people recognize each other when they meet.

So I think what we need and what we can do is create opportunities for meeting. In Sarajevo, it was already decided that the next conference of the Network for Dialogical Practices will be held in Sydney in 2027. The dates are coming soon.

But already next year, 2026, a conference of the Collaborative-dialogic Network will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia. The date has already been set: June 24-27, 2026.

Maybe we can say: even if each of the two networks holds a conference every other year, OUR COMMUNITY will have a conference every year.

Kristof Mikes-Liu announces the next conference in Sydney, 2027