Art of Hosting - Saint John, New Brunswick

A call to connection, courage, and collective wisdom.

In Atlantic Canada today, many of us are experiencing a deep need for connection and rehumanization. We see isolation in our communities, burnout in people working to make positive change, and structures in organizations that no longer serve. We are challenged by division, worry, and the difficulty of solving complex, interconnected problems while feeling disconnected from one another.

We believe that a core part of the path forward lies in nurturing our innate human capacity for meaningful connection and skillful conversation. We aspire to a future where people feel seen, heard, and empowered to act.

This training aims to be a “nest” - a space for you to find the courage to explore meaningful conversations. A place to move beyond the status quo, invite more voices to lead, and identify practical steps needed for change. By building a strong Community of Practice in Atlantic Canada, we can foster a practice that lives in our communities, organizations, and governments, helping people have the conversations they need with more skill, care, and shared ownership of change.

The Core Question Guiding Our Work

“How can we build trust and relationships across our differences for meaningful change to take root, grow, and flourish?”

What You Will Learn

In this highly experiential setting, you will explore and practice methods, models, and process design frameworks that enable strategic collaboration, allowing diverse or conflicting perspectives to strengthen relationships and create new beginnings.

This training offers a dynamic and hands-on learning environment. Through facilitated sessions and coaching, you will have the opportunity to take part in hosting and harvesting processes that deepen engagement and learning.

You're invited to bring your own ideas, projects, and challenges to explore with others, co-creating solutions and identifying practical ways to apply the insights in your own context beyond the training.

You will gain practical skills in:

• Hosting meaningful conversations and capturing collective insights.
• Personal leadership to navigate challenging or vulnerable spaces.
• Integrating participatory and collective leadership into your own context.
• Applying core 'Art of Hosting' methods such as Open Space Technology, The World Café, Appreciative Inquiry, and Chaordic Design.
• Designing collaborative initiatives that address complex societal challenges.
• Navigating differing perspectives, conflict, and emergence with practical models.
• You will also join a local and global network of practitioners dedicated to co-creating new living and working systems.

Together, we will be practicing:

• A Shift from Division to Action: Support to move from isolation and division into wise collective action and collaboration across differences.
• A Shared Language and Skillset: Tools to convene and lead important conversations and build shared practices, tools, and community around it.
• Rehumanization: A focus on the irreplaceable humanity of connection. The joy, energy, and relationships that technology cannot replace.

What is the Art of Hosting?

The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations that Matter (AoH) is a group of methodologies for facilitating conversation in groups of all sizes, supported by principles that help maximize collective intelligence, integrate and utilize diversity and minimize/transform conflict. Processes facilitated in this way tend to result in collective clarity and wise action, and sustainable, workable solutions to the most complex problems. The AoH embraces diversity and seeks to nurture relationships. It invites us to listen deeply and, through meaningful conversations, build the trust essential for wise collective action.

This Art of Hosting training is an invitation to explore a practice that builds trust and relationships, helps us bring people together to flourish, and enables us to seek wise ways forward together. It is a chance to step into a living systems way of being and thinking that allows us to welcome differences and grow trust in ourselves, each other, and the world around us.

Investment in the training includes:

• 3 full days of training (9am - 5pm each day)
• a workbook
• lunches, and snacks

Financial Support:

A range of financial support is available for students and others who might need it. It will be determined on a case by case basis. Please answer a few short questions in this form if you are looking for financial support to participate or reach out to [email protected] to discuss.

Accommodations:

You are responsible for arranging your accommodations. There are many wonderful BnB’s and hotels available in Saint John. Lily Lake Pavillion (55 Lake Dr S, Saint John, NB) is a 5 minute drive from Uptown Saint John.

The Hosting Team:

Amanda Hachey (she/her/elle) is a facilitator, systems convener, and an aspiring forest therapy guide. She has been steeping in the practices of Art of Hosting since 2010 and she is known for her innovative approach to hosting meaningful conversations within diverse stakeholder groups to connect people and increase the chances of those "Aha!" moments that make change happen. In her many roles she helps multi-stakeholder groups tackle complex social problems by holding space for people to listen to and learn from each other, to see the whole system, and to take action in ambiguity by leveraging an experimental approach. Amanda plays, loves, and laughs from her Moncton home with her son Rio and partner Aaron. She has a passion for everything bikes, gardens, and being in the woods!

Sophia Horwitz (she/her) (thecolab.ca) is a facilitator, leadership coach, and systems thinker. For more than 20 years, she has supported people and teams to navigate change with steadiness and imagination, including through civic innovation, public engagement, and leadership development. She brings care, clarity, and creativity to her work, and designs participatory spaces where people can reflect, experiment, and build capacity together, especially in times that ask for both courage and discernment. Sophia is a long-time practitioner of the Art of Hosting and is committed to stewarding participatory leadership as a daily practice. She believes meaningful change is shaped through the ways we gather, listen, and relate. When she’s not hosting conversations, Sophia loves chasing her kids through streams, revelling in the forest, and swimming in Nova Scotia’s lakes.

Greg Woolner (he/him) is a facilitator and co-founder of Colab (www.thecolab.ca) with over 15 years of experience designing participatory processes. Originally trained in music and community arts, Greg’s facilitation approach blends creativity with rigour. He has led strategy and engagement across sectors including climate, health, arts, education, and leadership, and has taught leadership development at Dalhousie University for over 10 years. His work is grounded in the belief that meaningful change emerges from collective learning and bold experimentation - whether that’s at a strategic retreat, around a boardroom table, or on stage with other musicians. Having attended and led many Art of Hosting trainings over the last 15 years, he’s excited to connect and share the learning with folks in Saint John.

Meghan Morrison (she/her/elle) is a connector, facilitator and avid doodler, first introduced to Art of Hosting in 2019. She's been practicing and learning from others in the network ever since, playfully looking for ways to increase community capacity to host conversations that matter. Meghan has been facilitating groups in conversation and learning for the last 20 years, whether working in Human Resources, supporting individuals using Third Party Neutral Conflict Resolution or using drawing and creative play to help groups consider their existing systems with fresh perspectives. Passionate about finding ways to incorporate individual gifts and creativity into conversations, you'll likely find her with a marker in hand, encouraging someone to draw with her. Meghan’s home is in Fredericton, NB, steps away from the beautiful and bountiful Wolastoq River where she lives with her fluffy dog Gus, and husband, Barry.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Amanda Hachey