Social designer

Samantha Slade

Participatory Strategy  –  Self-organization – Learning Thinking

A conscious entrepreneur, Samantha co-founded the international Percolab network and the coworking Ecto.  For over 20 years, she has been putting her background in anthropology and learning design in service of innovation work in North America and internationally.  Emergent process, design thinking, ethnography and a vast range of participatory approaches are her tools. Samantha is actively engaged in the future of cities, the international commons movement, and the Art of Hosting community. Samantha supports teams, organizations and ecosystems to grow participatory leadership approaches, collaborative practices and prototype mindsets.

Author Going Horizontal – Creating a Non-Hierarchical Organization, One Practice at a Time (BK Publishers).

Speaker TedX Geneva The Future is in Business as Commons

Studies: M.Sc. (Education), Graduate Teaching Diploma (Licence), B.A. (Anthropology), Community Education Certificate

Based in Montréal, Canada

Visual practitioner

Paul Messer

Paul uses design thinking to work with complexity. Tapping into his background as an industrial designer, Paul draws real-time visual map murals and makes custom objects  to support group innovation and co-design processes. As a designer, Paul’s creative drive and prototype mind thrive on constraints. Engaged in the ArtHive, FabLab and FabCity movements, Paul understands how creative processes can affect social change. Creator of the Visual Thinking Lab and active member of  the international visual practitioner community.

Studies: B.A. (Industrial Design), Design for Manufacture

Based in Montreal, Canada

Facilitator

Ria Baeck

Track-finder – Co-initiator – Illuminator

The question that always guides Ria’s work is: what is the next bit of potential that is ready to take form – in individuals, teams, organizations and large systems – with just a little bit of help?

Together with this enduring curiosity – also in her personal life – Ria’s almost 30 years’ professional experience and her capacity to create safe learning spaces, have made her a master support for real participatory and innovative approaches. Always scanning what’s new in work, collaboration and co-creation, she combines a range of tools and practices that are useful and effective. She is known for her embodied presence and inner repose, as well as her highly developed sensing skills, crucial in designing emergent processes.

She has written the book Generating the Future Together. Collective Presencing, our New Human Capacity (in draft, online: https://www.collectivepresencing.org/)

Studies: Masters in Clinical Psychology (Leuven, Belgium), professionally trained in Art of Hosting, Systemic Constellations, Emotional Bodywork and more

Based in: Kortenaken, a village in Belgium, Flanders

Facilitator

Nadine Jouanen

Bringing 25 years of experience with collaborative processes, training, and organisational change, Nadine’s work focuses on meaning-making and fostering a learning culture within organisations and communities. Adept at co-designing large-scale participatory events that make use of collective intelligence, Nadine brings great care to the communities she works with – facilitating conversations of any size to maximize participation, creativity and civic spirit.

Studies: M.A. (Training and new technologies), B.A. (Facilitation), Certificate Taïchi Chuan Wudang Muchuan, Certificate Permaculture.

Facilitator

Karine Zufferey

Karine has over 10 years’ experience as a creator of international multi-stakeholder projects and events. Her experience working with a wide diversity of organizations has allowed her to develop a deep understanding of group dynamics and collaboration, notably through the use of design thinking methodologies. Professionally trained in mediation and conflict prevention, she puts mutual understanding and creativity at the centre to (re-)build connections and leverage transformative processes for groups and individuals. Her work seeks to leverage hidden talent and resources, establish connections and create powerful collaborations.

Studies: M.A. Litterature (Linguistics), Diploma in Political Sciences, professionally trained in mediation/conflict prevention

Graphic facilitator

Fanny Monod-Mitrev

Graphic facilitation – Creativity – Facilitation

An explorer of horizons and possibilities, Fanny began collaborating with Percolab in October 2016. She has a background in community sector and citizen initiative work and co-directed a training center on collective intelligence in Montpellier for 3 years (Centre des pratiques de la coopération). Constantly involved in playful, visual projects, she supports individuals working towards professional fulfillment and teams moving towards collective intelligence and innovation. As a graphic facilitator, she explores the use of drawing and other communication channels to nurture co-creation and well-being at work. Through workshops, seminars and trainings, she shares her knowledge with kindness…and humour!

Education: M. Sc. in Communication & Information studies

Based in Toulouse, France

Strategy

Simon Kubski

For over a decade Simon has worked as an entrepreneur launching projects and teams transforming the ways we live, work and play. Simon combines systems thinking, business acumen and co-creative processes to generate innovatives strategies and execute on opportunities at the nexus of future cities, digital transformation, and organizational and socio-ecological change. While living in China for 13 years, Simon launched Mercedes Benz’s digital innovation lab in Beijing, won the Reddot Product Design Award and Tech Crunch startup competition for creating ATMOBLUE, as well as pioneering several sustainable lifestyle projects in fashion, travel, and F&B. He speaks English, French, and Mandarin and is a yoga teacher and world traveler.

Facilitator

Lori Palano

Lori has over 25 years of experience facilitating a wide variety of participatory processes, both in Canada and internationally. Bringing both a playful and a serene approach to the work, she shares the tools needed to uncover the clarity in a complex situation. Her project management skills are infused with adaptability and fluidity. She is passionate about designing processes that foster inclusive participation and healthy collaboration.

Organisational Innovation

Stéphanie Bossé

Facilitation – Appreciative Inquiry – Coaching

Certified HR professional, expert in organizational development and change management, Stéphanie focuses on people who create value in organizations and systems.  She has a strengths based approach that mobilizes multiple actors via autonomy, engagement, and sense making. International practitioner of appreciative inquiry and black belt in lean, Stéphanie developed the approach known as “Appreciative Kata”.

Stephanie’s brings a vast experience in executive coaching  to her work in cultural and organizational innovation. She mixes individual and team coaching into culture change and co-creation processes.

Studies: M. Administration  École nationale d’administration publique, Montréal and Paris (Sorbonne) and B.A  Communication Human relations (psychosociologie), Université du Québec à Montréal

Facilitator

Sylvie Mercier

As a practitioner of Appreciative Inquiry and a green belt in continuous improvement, Sylvie brings forward the practice of mindfulness. Trained as an occupational therapist, she has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare system, including ten years in management positions. Her passion is to foster collective intelligence for the common good. Sylvie believes in commitment, opening up to various possibilities, and betting on what is going well in order to move towards a desired future, even surpassing our collective aspirations.

Olivia Horge

Inspired by human-centred change, Olivia designs applied processes that foster connection, build community and harness collective energy. She has co-designed and facilitated transformative learning experiences for students at Concordia University that combine theoretical and conceptual models with applied learning to anchor insights and enhance leadership capacity-building. Olivia’s passion for socio-ecological transitions lead her to imagine courageous ways of building a more equitable, just and socially conscious world. Working with knowledge of organization development and behavioural sciences, she brings forward emergent processes and innovative practices that support teams and organizations to step into bold new ways of functioning and collaborating together.

Nina Signard-Lombart

Having graduated from Trinity College Dublin in social business and political science, Nina is interested in the logical links that define organisations’ internal processes. With a particular interest for well-being and mental health, she supports courageous systems to adapt their practices to take care of the humans inside them. She practices collaboration by experimenting with tools and challenging her colleagues and partners. The attention she gives to visuals supports processes and teams toward a common understanding. At Percolab, she works on measuring impact in the perspective of the socio-ecological transition.

Scientific advisor

David Kaiser

Public health and preventive medicine specialist at the Montreal public health department. David works on various issues related to the urban environment and health, including housing, environmental noise and extreme heat. He is director of the residency program in Public health and preventive medicine at McGill University and clinical assistant professor in the Department of social and preventive medicine at ESPUM and in the Department of epidemiology, biostatistics and occupational health at McGill University.