Sustainable Hospitality Exchange

Have you already heard about the SHE-conference? SHE stands for Sustainable Hospitality Exchange and is a conference that organised during the last weekend of June in Amsterdam (27-29 June, 2008). It is based in a local former squat that can host a hundred people and more. The goals of SHE is to increase exchange of knowledge on the different hospex-networks around the world & foster debate and change.

SHE wants to be an open-space conference on topics related to hospitality exchange. SHE wishes to enable face-to-face debates and workshops on how these networks are run, on best-practices, on volunteer-work, on empowerment, on community building and all other related topics. In addition, SHE also wishes to connect the praxis of hospitality exchange to a wider framework of cultural exchange, gift-economy, trust-metrics, sustainable traveling and living a joyful life because above everything SHE wishes to create the debate: what do we mean with sustainable hospitality exchange?

In the end though, SHE is how you envision her. Look her in the eyes and think what you could do with SHE! Imagine a space with enthousiastic people who are very eager to hear about the history of all networks of hosp-exchange. Imagine an open podium, space for art-installations & great food, a self-managed bar and lots of nice people that want to live & learn by sharing.

SHE is curious to know if you are interested. SHE is really looking forward to hear from people such as you to start thinking what you would like to do with her. Would you for example like to facilitate a workshop on any of the topics related to SHE? Or do you have any other groovy ideas that SHE might benefit from? Of course you do!

Workshops that SHE is already envisioning are for example: experiences on volunteer work, how to build up a local hospitality exchange community, sustainable traveling and hitchhiking, trust, hospitality exchange and money system, free software and coding, salsa, cultural western-centrism, history of any given network, et cetera.

The space for SHE is already organised. It has lots of room for plenary sessions & workshops. There are tables, chairs, a bar, a dj-set and a podium as well. But SHE also already exists in wiki-space. So why don't you start getting into SHE? You can check her out for more information. You can also edit the pages and give your input straight away: http://turl.ca/sheconf

For now SHE is being facilitated by a small but committed group of people who would love to hear from you. Please write me with your ideas and forward this e-mail to good people.