My first memory of Genuine Contact is from a workshop with Birgitt Williams in Stockholm 1999. I was working for the Center Party, one of the Swedish political parties. We were creating a new party policy, building from the members and upwards. We wanted to use a different method at the party´s annual meeting to get as much input as possible before the members were to decide on the new policy. Birgitt told us about Open Space Technology (OST), a method that tapped into the collective wisdom, so I immediately registered for the training. During the training I found out that there was a whole program where OST was just one piece and so I wanted to learn more. The Center Party was impressed by the approach and sent me to 3 more workshops in Stockholm and Berlin. After that I facilitated an OST meeting over 2 half days for the around 1000 people who had gathered at the annual party meeting. I also used OST whenever possible and simply tried to permeate as much of the organization as possible.
In September 2001, I went to Raleigh for the first Train the Trainer workshop and got authorized to teach the Genuine Contact Program. I then decided to come back to Birgitt and Ward Williams and support their work, which I did by cooking for the participants in the coming years until 2010.
I have now worked with Genuine Contact for around 20 years, as a facilitator, project manager and leader in many organizations and I know the Genuine Contact way always provides results beyond expectation.