An unconventional movement

Reflections on the Conference on Honduras 2009

It’s been a month now since the Conference on Honduras 2009 finished and I’ve had a little bit of time to start organising my thoughts and ideas, in between battling a cold, our terribly slow internet and numerous ant invasions into our home. Here are some belated reflections.

Firstly I have to say I was very impressed with the number of conferees that made it to Copan.  The day before the conference, when the country was under curfew and the airports were closed I wrote: “I will be very interested to see who is able to make it, and how the conference will work under such conditions.”    Luckily the curfew was lifted and over 100 conferees did make it, some re-routing through Guatemala City to avoid the airport at San Pedro Sula.  This to me is clear evidence of the importance of the conference to many, and their commitment to the idea that is projecthonduras.com.

Amongst those 100 or so conferees I was very pleased to see many familiar faces.  It was quite a change from last year’s conference when I walked into a room full of strangers and wondered how (with my quiet personality and wall-flower tendencies) I was ever going to make enough contacts to get this research going.  Somehow I did, and over the past year I have had the privilege of travelling Honduras and the Internet, and meeting many kind and wonderful people, so that now, when I entered the conference hall I no longer felt like a stranger.

Some highlights:

Guillermo Anderson! While the star factor was obviously present, I think it was Guillermo’s presentation that really caught most people’s attention. Guillermo spoke as a Honduran about mobilising the youth of Honduras.  One of the things I have been following in my research is the participation of Hondurans in projecthonduras.com and online, and Guillermo’s presentation was a great way to kick off the conference.  In addition, the children’s concert he gave the next day was a great way to entertain my daughter!

Another speaker I was very interested to hear was Critt Jarvis, who spoke on extending the actual conference into a virtual online conference.  I was particularly interested in this because his ideas reflect the suggestions of several others I have interviewed.  Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time to talk at the conference (and I’m still waiting to hear more about his ideas!) but I am following his blog and twitter stream with great interest.

On a personal level other speakers who particularly caught my attention were John Donaghy and Janet Kawas of Integrar. John’s presentation interested me as he focused less on services provided (clinics, schools etc) and more on solidarity, research and advocacy work.

Janet was the only speaker to receive a standing ovation.  She spoke passionately from her experience, capturing the hearts of the audience (particularly those of us who are mothers I suspect).  Her presentation reminded me of how the roots of many small organisations (and some larger ones) are in the experiences of the founder, and in their compassionate response to the needs of others.

Ideas to chew on:

For me there are several themes of interest that have come out of this conference, and that I will be chewing over for a while.  The first was the social networking aspect of the conference.  Critt’s presentation was obviously part of this, but he wasn’t alone. Overall I noticed much more interest in this than last year, with increasing references to social media, including blogs, Facebook and Twitter, and discussion of novel ideas such as posting needs as a wish list on Amazon.com. However while projecthonduras.com is founded on the idea of being an online network, much has changed in the field of social networking in the past few years and many projecthonduras.com participants and conferees are clearly in the process of working out what to do with the new tools.  It will be fascinating to see how the network changes as people become adapted to using the tools, and how much of an impact it will have on the day-to-day work of organisations in Honduras.

Another theme I noted was the involvement of Hondurans. There seemed to be a much larger proportion of Hondurans at this conference, perhaps because many North Americans were unable to get there, but Hondurans in country could. Guillermo’s presentation was just one of several Honduran presentations, most of which were done in Spanish. More than the presentations, I was struck by the number of Hondurans getting up and asking questions.  The US and English language dominance at the last conference bothered me a bit (this is Honduras after all), and although US Americans still outnumber Honduras, it was great to see the participation increase.  ”Hondurans do volunteer” was the message to conferees from one Honduran student present, and indeed they do.

The apolitical approach of projecthonduras.com is another theme that has given me much to think about.  This conference was held in the middle of some of the most divisive and ugly political events in recent Honduran history. After days of watching the news and talking about the crisis walking into the conference venue felt a little like walking into a bubble.  Apart from some personal conversations and a few sideways references from speakers (mostly about the travel disruptions), politics was left at the door.  This allowed for the conference to remain focused on the main themes of the conference – education, healthcare and community building – and to avoid disruptive conflict.  Yet it didn’t always feel natural and political worries seemed to simmer blow the surface.  I wonder if it would have been helpful to address these more directly.  I guess if the proposed Peace and Reconciliation Forum had been held alongside the conference that might have been a space for discussing such issues.

Another interesting theme that got some airtime at the conference was the idea of social entrepreneurship. In particular Chris from Tegu Toys, and Charles George of Vegas Electric discussed the idea of using a for profit business model to fund and drive development in Honduras.  While many of us remain skeptical of how the values of capitalism and social justice might merge, this is an idea that is gaining attention globally and probably worthwhile of a whole thesis of it’s own (I’m sure somebody’s doing it).

If you were at the conference and have any thoughts on these themes, or anything else regarding the conference I’d love it if you would leave a comment here, or send me an email (smclennan (at) hondurasresearch.net).  This research is about networking and connecting people and the more dialogue and conversation I can have with you the richer and more relevant the research will be.

Finally, a big thanks to those who spoke to me at the conference and answered questions, and a very special thanks to those who helped look for and entertain my daughter Maya (especially to Marco’s girls). It’s not easy to focus on conference presentations and on research while trying to be a Mum but I love that she is  able to be there and is welcomed.  Thank you all.