Sep21
MESSAGE FROM PROFESSOR CANDIDO MENDES
Dear President Jorge Sampaio, High Representative of the Alliance of Civilizations, Ms. Marleen Stikker, Director of the Waag Society of Amsterdam, Ms. Barbara Coutinho, Director of the MUDE in Lisbon, Diogo Vasconcelos, Sara Piteira and Julie Caulier-Grice from the Dialogue Café headquarters in London. Katia de Marco, my dear representative at Dialogue Café in Rio de Janeiro.
Although I cannot join you and attend this magnificent event due to a trip to Paris and Brussels for a series of workshops and meetings this week, I could not go without conveying to you how happy I am with the launch of a Dialogue Café in Amsterdam, as a result of your untiring efforts to expand this remarkable initiative to as many cities in the world as your creative minds and amazing energy allow you to.
This Dutch link to the Dialogue CafĂ© network – especially considering the relevant interdisciplinary work developed by our new partners in the Netherlands, the Waag Society – represents a landmark in the development of the DC mandate of linking different parts of the world, by means of state-of-the-art technology, in one single, cohesive – but not homogeneous – community. This new addition will allow us a big step further in the process of incrementing the cross-cultural debate of ideas advocated in the guiding principles of the United Nations’ Alliance of Civilizations.
In a world that is now moving fast from a hegemonic to a pluralistic, multicultural perspective, bringing together not only different schools of thought but the very essences of the distinct national repertoires, the Dialogue CafĂ© initiative is an extraordinary tool to promote and enrich this systematic conversation and exchange of insights among the individual actors – scholars, artists, social and cultural innovators, politicians, students, representatives of the civil society and persons from all walks of life, for that matter – that reach out to have their ideas and projects heard by their counterparts across the globe. This is no minor achievement!
To our new partner, Ms. Marleen Stikker, my warmest congratulations and best wishes in this new venture. I am sure that the interactions between the DC’s in Amsterdam and Rio will be most inspiring and beneficial for both parties.
With the testimony of my admiration, recognition and friendship to all of you.
Candido Mendes
Sep20
Between Wednesday 22nd and Friday 24th September, Dialogue Cafe will be hosting a series of conversations as part of the 2010 PICNIC programme.
The events will take place
each day at Dialogue Cafes in Amsterdam, Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro from 5.30pm until 7.00pm (CET). These events will involve innovators, researchers, entrepreneurs and thought-leaders and will focus on three themes: Re-designing Life, Re-designing the World Around Us and Re-designing Design.
RE-DESIGNING LIFE
Wednesday 22nd September 5.30pm – 7.00pm
As we are increasingly able to manipulate the building blocks of life and the (living) world around us, the possibilities seem endless: prolonging and enhancing human life with improved healthcare, implanting nano- chips in our brains to boost human intelligence, creating smart materials for more sustainable use, improving food crops and developing sustainable energy sources. But what are the ethical and moral implications of these developments? How does it change our role as human beings in the greater order of things?
Speakers: Rachel Armstrong (Amsterdam) Miguel Neiva (Lisbon) Daniela Pais (Lisbon)
Moderator: Lucas Evers, Waag Society (Amsterdam)
RE-DESIGNING THE WORLD AROUND US
Thursday 23rd September 5.30pm – 7.00pm
Our domestic environment as well as the cities we live in is going to huge change due to fast technological developments. We start to live in smart cities and smart houses, networked with the rest of the world. Our notion of the quality of cities not only depends on the endowment of hard infrastructure (‘physical capital’), but increasingly on the availability and quality of knowledge, communication and social infrastructure, made accessible true technology. (‘intellectual and social capital’). What future scenario’s can we expect? What will or can be the impact on economical, social or environmental issue. What is the ideal design of the world around us?
Speakers: Matthias Hollwich (Amsterdam) Helder Coelho (Lisbon) Luis Correia (Lisbon) Artur Arsénio (Lisbon) José Luiz Moutinho (Lisbon) J. Arthur Vasconcelos (Lisbon
Moderator: Frank Kresin, Waag Society
RE-DESIGNING DESIGN
Friday the 24th September 5.30 – 7.00pm (CET)
The design industry is going through fundamental changes. Open design, downloadable design and distributed design democratize the design industry, and imply that anyone can be a designer or a producer. On the other hand design methodology as a problem solving process has found new applications in a broad range of seemingly unrelated sectors. How will these trends impact the very essence of the design industry, including copyright issues, traditional business models and the role of the professional designer?
Guest Speakers: Geoff Mulgan (Amsterdam) Charlie Leadbeater (Amsterdam) Blindesign (Lisbon) White Tent (Lisbon) Aforest Design – SARA Lamurias (Lisbon)
Moderator: Barbara Countinho, MUDE (Lisbon)
Picnic Afternoons at Dialogue Cafe.pdf
Come and join us at de Waag! For more information contact julie@dialoguecafe.org.
Sep20
We are really excited about launching Dialogue Café Amsterdam at Waag Society tomorrow.
For the occasion, we’ll be connecting the three Dialogue CafĂ©s in Lisbon, Amsterdam and Rio de Janeiro to Cisco offices in New York, Sao Paulo, Warsaw and Oslo for a round-table discussion on innovation and creativity and the role of Dialogue CafĂ©. This will be followed by music from OMIRI in Lisbon and Cristina Braga in Rio de Janeiro!
5.00 pm: Doors open and drinks
5.15 pm: Launch – the conversation starts!
6.15pm – 6.45pm: Music and drinks
PARTICIPANTS
Amsterdam: Ger Baron (Amsterdam Innovation Motor), Marleen Stikker (Director, Waag society), Diogo Vasconcelos (Chairman, Dialogue Café Association)
Lisbon: Barbara Coutinho (Director, MUDE), Teresa PatrĂcio Gouveia (Gulbenkian Foundation) (tbc), Beatriz Vidal (Portuguese Design Centre), LuĂs Mah (UN Millennium Campaign), Prof. Jose Santos (INSEAD), Pedro Veiga (Chairman, FCCN).
Rio de Janeiro: Rita Torre (UCAM), Katia de Marco (Director, ABGC), Carla Cipolla (DESIS).
New York: President Jorge Sampaio (High Representative to the UN Alliance of Civilisations), Helena Barroco (Senior Advisor to President Sampaio), Relina Bulchandani (Cisco)
Warsaw: Prof Miroslav Miller (University of Wroclaw, EIT+), Bartlomiej Michalowski (Cisco)
Sao Paulo: Antonio Laporta (EDP Foundation), Guilherme Benevides (EDP Foundation), Flavia Ramos (EDP Foundation), Barbara Stutz (the Hub), Renato Pazzoto (Cisco).
Oslo: Jorgen Myrland (Cisco), Mailliw Sorensen (Cisco), Bente Erichson (Nobel Centre for Peace).
Sep13
This week Dialogue Cafe is taking part in Greenfest, Portugal’s largest sustainability festival which celebrates everything good and green in business, people and the environment. The festival brings together activists, community groups, businesses and others for a week of workshops, lectures and talks, films and performances and other fun activities.
Greenfest at Dialogue Cafe:
On Tuesday we’re doing a workshop on food and the environment. In Lisbon we’ll be joined by the Director of the Portuguese Macrobiotic Institute.
On Wednesday, our Greenfest workshop is on the theme of sustainability and social innovation. We’ll be joined by a number of NGOs in Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro.
On Thursday, the theme of the day is energy efficiency. In Lisbon we’re joined by Cascais Energia – the Energy Agency of the Cascais Municipality. Cascais Energy, established in January 2007, is a private non-profit association with the purpose of contributing to a more efficient energy and renewable energy use in the Cascais Municipality. The Agency also seeks to promote sustainable development and social cohesion.
On Friday, we’re doing a Yoga Laughter Workshop! The workshop will be led by Clara Fernandes, specialist in Laughter Yoga, qualified teacher from the Laughter Yoga International School. You can find more information here.
Join us at MUDE or UCAM! For more information contact mude@dialoguecafe.org or ucam@dialoguecafe.org.
Sep7
The Dialogue Cafe Association is excited to announce the launch of its third Dialogue Café at the Waag Society in Amsterdam on 21st September 2010. We are really thrilled to be partnering with Waag Society; they are an incredible organisation and a truly excellent addition to the Dialogue Cafe Network.
Waag Society develops creative technology for social innovation. The foundation researches, develops concepts, pilots and prototypes and acts as an intermediate between the arts, science and the media. Waag Society cooperates with cultural, public and private parties.
Waag Society is housed in two historic monuments in Amsterdam, de Waag and Pakhuis de Zwijger. Dialogue Cafe will be placed in de Waag.
Waag Society was founded in 1994 by Caroline Nevejan and Marleen Stikker. Stikker also initiated the Digital City, the first internet community in The Netherlands. It has developed into a interdisciplinary medialab, where besides research and development there is room for experiment with new technology, art and culture. Waag Society divides its activities in five social domains: Healthcare, Culture, Society (public domain), Education and Sustainability.
We’ll be launching Dialogue Cafe Amsterdam on the 21st September. From then, it will be open for all of you to connect to Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro.
To find out more information about Dialogue Cafe contact info@dialoguecafe.org and to find out more information about Dialogue Cafe at Waag Society contact waag@dialoguecafe.org!
Aug25
Last week, Dialogue Cafe had the opportunity to take part in the 1st
Alliance of Civilisations Summer School in Aveiro, Portugal. The theme was “Bridging hearts, opening minds and doing things together” and it really was an incredible week.
There were over 100 participants representing 44 countries and a full programme of activities, lectures and workshops. Dialogue Cafe had the opportunity to host two workshops and during the day trip to Lisbon on 18th August, we organised a Dialogue Cafe session connecting Dialogue Cafe Lisbon with London and Rio de Janeiro. In London we were joined by the Social Innovation Exchange and Maslaha and in Rio de Janeiro we were joined by Promundo.
Here are some photos:
