Transitions: Diverse Routes to Belonging Conference 20-21 November 2010

By Ed Mitchell 3rd September 2010

Transitions: Diverse Routes to Belonging conference, 20/21-Nov-2010, Edinburgh

  • book your tickets on Eventbrite here
  • all about the programme (UPDATED 18-Oct-2010)

The conference will be held at the John McIntyre Conference Centre, and will bring together people from communities across the world who are working in very different ways to create or protect sustainable, local and fair ways of living.

With workshops to touch your hands, heart and head and a two day process that will move through connecting to our personal and cultural resources, facing up to the challenges we’re up against, finding out about an amazing range of ways that people in the UK and beyond are taking action and identifying the next steps on the journey.  All this plus delicious food, children’s workshops, fun, collaborative entertainment and most of all a great bunch of fellow travellers, in the beautiful setting of the John McIntyre Centre with views of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh.

We hope that your weekend with us will be inspiring, energising and enjoyable.  The conference is hosted by Transition Scotland with the support of  the Transition Network & the University of Edinburgh. We have been lucky enough to attract funding from the Scottish Climate Challenge Fund to help with putting on this event which has allowed us to keep prices for tickets, food and accommodation lower than they would otherwise have been, while providing what we hope you agree will be an exciting and diverse programme.

If you’re coming to Edinburgh for the first time, you’re in for a treat!  Edinburgh is one of the greenest and architecturally most beautiful cities in Northern Europe. We have five Transition groups active in Edinburgh, an emerging local food network and lots of other local projects working on Transition issues in a range of ways.

For more information about Edinburgh see:  www.edinburgh.org or  www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/tour/edintour.html.

All about the Conference

Date and times

We will have registration open on Friday evening from 19.30-23.00, and on Saturday morning from 8.00-9.00.

If you arrive on Friday evening between 19.30-23.00, come and join the Annual Scottish Transition Gathering for a ceilidh.

The Conference Programme starts at 9.00 on Saturday and runs through to 16.00 on Sunday.

Ticket Prices & Concessions

Ticket prices are for the two day event and include food & refreshments per description below description.  They are on a sliding scale, please choose the ticket which matches your situation.

  • Full Price Ticket (for the higher waged or those funded by an organisation) – £100.00
  • Standard price ticket – £60.00
  • Lower income concession (earning up to £20K/year, or young person between 16-18) – £15.00
  • No income concessions (assumes no income no savings) – £5.00
  • Child ticket (child or young person 5-16 years old) – £15.00

Overnight accommodation (see more details below):

  • standard room, 19 & 20 November. All rooms have 1 double bed and are either for single occupancy, or you are free to share with another conference attendee of your choice should you wish [at no extra cost!] – £20.00
  • family room, 19 & 20 November, double + 1 single – £30.00
  • family room 19 & 20 Nov, 2 doubles – £30.00

We don’t want costs to stop anyone coming to the gathering, so please contact transitionconference@googlemail.com if this is still a problem for you.

Accommodation

We have secured a number of rooms at Pollock Halls.  All the standard rooms have 1 double bed and are available either for single occupancy, or you are free to share with another conference attendee of your choice should you wish (at no extra cost).  There are a small number of family rooms which are listed separately – please only book these if you are bringing children. Breakfast is included. If you require a cot for and infant please contact transitionconference@googlemail.com and we will do our best to help.

Please note: these rooms are only available with a booking for the Transitions: Diverse Routes to Belonging conference.

Venue Information & Accessibility

The Conference is at John McIntyre Conference Centre, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Park Road, Edinburgh, EH16 5AY.

The venue is fully accessible. There are some accessible bedrooms, and the breakfast room is fully accessible.


View Larger Map

Children

We have some places for children (0-16 year olds) who are attending with a parent or guardian. Please make sure that you book places for your children.

There will be separate children’s [5-11] and young people’s [12-16] activities during the weekend, so please let us know ages when booking, and whether your children want to join in with these scheduled activities. View the children’s & young people’s programmes.

Note:  If you think your 5-16 year old child would be happier in the older or younger group even if they don’t fall in that age bracket, please let us know in the booking form.

If your child is attending with you and is either younger than 5 or doesn’t wish to join in the activities, please be aware that you still need to book. Sadly we cannot afford to provide crèche facilities, so you will need to keep your child with you at all times and be responsible for their welfare.

Food

Lunch will be provided on Saturday and Sunday, and dinner will be provided on Saturday. If you have booked the onsite accommodation this includes breakfast. Please let us know of dietary restrictions when booking. There will also be tea & coffee breaks.

Children under 5 – The venue does not have any provision for baby foods so please bring what you need.

Getting there

By rail

Travel from the South and East travel with GNER (minimum travel times to Edinburgh from other UK cities include: 3hrs 59mins from London, 2hrs 16mins from York and 1hr 23mins from Newcastle). For travel from the South and West travel with Virgin. ScotRail run services from other cities in Scotland and Northern England, and also run a sleeper service from London Euston.

For further information see (note that numbers beginning 0345 and 0845 are for use within the UK only):

National rail enquiries:
From within the UK: 08457484950

From the US: 800 677 8585
From other countries: +44 131 535 8054

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/planmyjourney/

GNER: 0845 7 225 225

Virgin: 0345 333 222

ScotRail: 0345 55 00 33

By coach

National Express online
Day and overnight coaches operate regularly between Edinburgh St. Andrew Square bus station and London Victoria Coach Station. The journey takes 8 hours and 30 minutes and costs approximately £25 for a return journey.

National Express Inquiries +44 (0) 141 331 1341

Or see: http://www.nationalexpress.co.uk

By road

Journey time from London, via the M1 and M6 Motorways, is approximately 8 hours.

By ferry

DFDS Seaways: http://www.dfdsseaways.co.uk

DFDS Seaways sail into Newcastle (2 hours’ drive to Edinburgh) from Germany, Sweden and Holland.

North Sea Ferries
North Sea Ferries sail into Hull (5 hours’ drive to Edinburgh) from Belgium and Holland. They operate crossings from Belfast and Larne to Stranraer and Troon (1.5 hours drive from Edinburgh). They also operate crossings to Newcastle from Norway and Sweden.
North Sea Ferries +44 (0) 1482 377 177

General tips for getting around Edinburgh

The conference venue is in the city centre, which is fairly compact.  Edinburgh does not have an underground or tram system, but it does have a frequent (though erratic) and comprehensive bus service. The main operator within Edinburgh is Lothian Buses. Be warned that LRT buses do not give change! The normal single fare for a journey is £1.20. Taxis are also easy to find on most major thoroughfares.

For further information

Lothian Region Transport: +44 (0) 131 555 6363 or  http://www.lothianbuses.co.uk

Buses which leave from Princes Street, near Waverly Station and go past the conference Centre (stopping on Dalkieth Road) are the 14, 30, 33 and 48.

Here are some numbers for local taxi companies:

  • City Cabs (Edinburgh) Ltd: (0131) 228 1211
  • Capital Castle Taxis: (0131) 228 2555
  • Southside Cab Co: (0131) 530 0050
  • Accolade Taxis: (0131) 556 5858

The Programme

We’re very excited to announce that you can now view the conference programme here.  As you will see, there’s a huge range of really interesting people coming to share their thinking and working with us – and plenty of space to share our own thoughts and ideas as well.

Things kick off on Friday evening, where the good folks of Transition Scotland are hosting a welcoming ceilidh with music from the wonderful Belle Stars, that’s these Belle Stars, not the 1980′s pop combo of the same name.  In traditional Scottish fashion, there will be turns from the audience as well…

The following morning we’ll meet again to begin the conference, with Rob Hopkins, Alastair McIntosh, Sophy Banks, and Phil Hanlon encouraging us in their unique ways to ask what are the cultural roots that can support and resource us in working to create a more sustainable and sustaining world.

In the afternoon we’ll turn our attention to looking, from many different points of view, at the nature of the problems we face.   Some of the highlights of this session will be:

  • Peter Lipman will be taking a look at the Big Society and looking at the opportunities and threats it presents to community resilience.
  • Justin Kenrick will be asking: what are the processes of enclosure that threaten our common world? What can we learn from indigenous peoples ability to connect the political, cultural and inner processes of transition that sustain their commons?
  • Verene Nicolas will be looking at the inevitable conflict that arises in groups of all kind and at ways to deal with it.
  • Sophy Banks and Emily Watts will facilitate a session for the whole group, which will give us space to tell our own stories, and to get to know one another’s cultural histories.

We’ll then have a lovely dinner laid on for us, and an evening of entertainment to look forward to (and participate in), compered by our scintillating host, John Ireson from Transition Edinburgh, and featuring Moving Sounds’ great show ‘Connected‘.

On Sunday morning, after a quick stroll up Arthur’s Seat – or maybe a spot of chi gung, we’ve got an amazing line up of people who’ve come to tell us about projects they’re involved with, including:

  • May East hosting a special ‘virtual’ visit from Transition groups in Brazil.
  • Gehan Macleod from Galgael, who are working to reclaim traditional skills and ways of being in the heart of Glasgow.
  • Rebecca Brewin from LIFE, who are building bridges between faith communities in London.
  • Nick Lunch from Insight Share, who’s teaching participatory video making internationally, to enable people to develop greater control over the decisions affecting their lives.After a delicious lunch, we have an open space session which will give you the space to raise the burning issues last day and a half has raised for you and to work out what your next steps might be.

There is a parallel young people’s event on site, facilitated by Moving Sounds, and tailored to the interests of the participants, so it’s sure to be hugely enjoyable.  There are also parallel events happening in Brazil, Germany and Spain, and we’re planning to have opportunities, both real time and recorded on-line, to make contact with these groups and find out how things are going with them.

We think this will be a very exciting and useful couple of days!  We hope you’ll join us – click here to go to our website and book your place.

Reservations

The only way to reserve a place is to pay for it. That goes for both the conference and the accommodation. See below for payment details – you can pay either online or with a cheque (UK only). We request that you resist the temptation of calling us up and asking for a reservation – just check the top of this page where we’ll put updated ticket availability information.

Payments

You can pay using Paypal, Visa, AmEx, Mastercard, Solo or Switch. When you receive your confirmation e-mail to say that your payment has been accepted, you are booked.

To pay by cheque (strictly UK only): please send the following for the Attention of Eva Schonveld, Transition Scotland Support, 8/2 Marlborough Street, Edinburgh, EH15 2BG:

  • your cheque, made out to “Transition Scotland Support”
  • your contact details – e-mail and or phone number (please make sure we can read it)
  • the number and type of tickets you want
  • details of other participants if you’re paying for their tickets
  • your accommodation choices

Your place(s) will only be reserved once we’ve received your cheque. We’ll notify you via e-mail or phone.

Cancellations

Cancellations received by end of day October 22nd will be reimbursed 100%

Cancellations received between October 23rd and end of day October 31st will be reimbursed 50%.

Cancellations received from November 1st will not be reimbursed (please contact us if you have exceptional circumstances).

Numbers

We have room for 175 Transitioners.

Press Protocol

Members of the press are very welcome to participate in or observe all and any aspect of the conference, as long as they sign up (by email or at the conference) to the following protocol:

  • All press must register through the normal channels, paying full price and (contact Kristin at transitionconference@googlemail.com for your press pass).
  • All press must let us know which publication (or freelance) they represent
  • All press MUST report to reception on arrival
  • A member of the Conference staff will provide press with an identifiable badge with name and publication
  • Press must wear the badge at all times
  • Any press person engaging a conference participant in conversation must explicitly convey whether the conversation is on the record or off the record
  • All participants will be told that if they feel uncomfortable talking to the press that it is their responsibility to express that (politely) before the conversations start

For further information visit the Transition Scotland website.

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