Episode 45: Dabrowski Congress 2024
Extended show notes
This is an edited transcript from Episode 45.
Emma: Today, we're going to talk about next year's Dabrowski Congress.
Chris: Yes, we are excited to talk with you today about the 16th International Dabrowski Congress, which will be a virtual or hybrid event in July 2024. Although we'll have some in-person gatherings, too. This is going to be a different Congress than the ones before it. We're trying new things, and we're trying to cultivate a bit of a different feel about it as well to make it a little less academic and a little bit more accessible to lay people who are interested in personal growth and want to spend time in communion discussing the theory, its aspects, its applications with the gifted and beyond. Neurodivergence. It's going to be great.
Emma: The theme is lived experience, which has given me a lot of food for thought. It'll be interesting to see what the keynote speakers are going to say and what sort of proposals we get in. As you said, with that applicability, and trying to push into other spaces and talk about things like mental health.
I'm really excited personally that it is going to be more of an international participation kind of thing. We're planning on running in three time zones, which is tricky to organize, but hopefully going to open it up to more people.
Chris: That's right. Technically, “Living the Theory” is the theme, but lived experience is the same thing. It's going to be cool.
So, July 11-13, 2024, Emma’s going to be kicking us off with a keynote to begin the conference. Lotte von Lith is next. And then Eric Windhorst is going to do the concluding keynote.
We're going to have a mixture of hour-long sessions from presenters, as well as 90-minute workshops. We'll have more information about the keynotes soon. We'll get titles and descriptions out as soon as we have them, along with bios.
We have podcast episodes with Lotte and Eric. So, listeners who haven't reached their episodes yet, you should definitely check them out, and you'll see why we chose them for keynotes. Actually, I have to be honest that as soon as the 2022 Congress ended, I knew that I wanted to ask both of them to do keynotes at the next Congress. I did reach out right away to check with them and see if they were on board.
The international aspect of this Congress came about because of our experience with the podcast. People have listened to our episodes in more than 100 countries at this point, and we have so much contact from people outside of North America and outside of Australia, that we really realized that we needed to do something that would somehow bring everybody together for these three days.
In one of our planning sessions, I was trying to articulate that, in my mind, what I hope for this Congress is that most participants will be willing to disengage from work or their other obligations to the best of their abilities, to really immerse themselves into this experience even though it's virtual.
What we want to do is encourage people to bring others together in their area, to have these watch parties together where you'll be able to hang out with other people who are interested in this work. We're going to have one here in Denver.
It's going to be fun. The Congress is a really special conference. It's not like other conferences, I've found. It's very intimate. Because people self-select into caring about the theory because of a personal growth aspect, it tends to bring together people who are trying to be better people and who have already been through disintegration and understand each other. So, it's a cool experience.
Emma: And then literally “Living the Theory” as per the theme this time. So, it's not just talking about living the theory, it's interacting and finding community with people, as you said, who are going through or have been through disintegrations and are literally living the theory in their lives. It's a bit of a twofold meaning there.
Chris: We plan to do a couple workshops together where we create a safe container for sharing your stories. We're really hoping that we'll get some of our most dedicated listeners around to talk about the impact of the theory on their lives and their own journeys, and we’ll take a backseat to helping you share your stories for a change. I think that that'll be really powerful and poignant.
Emma: We've learned about the power of being vulnerable and sharing your experiences and how that helps people find those mirrors. And this Congress, hopefully, is going to be like a hall of mirrors, nonstop mirrors. [laughter]
You'll be able to not only see yourself, hopefully, in the keynote speakers, but find people like you in the workshops. And as you said, we hear from other people who've been listening to the podcast who can share their experiences. So, that's really what we're trying to create.
I'm particularly excited about the fact that it's not going to be centered in America this time because I know for a fact last time I couldn't participate in a lot of the stuff because it was all going on while I was asleep. It's hard to listen to a keynote speaker at 3 a.m. and absorb what it is that they're trying to say to you. So, it's great that we're going to be offering things and be a true community, you know transcending those boundaries.
Chris: Yeah, that's exactly what I had in mind when I said that I wanted to make sure it was accessible internationally or, available is better, I think. That there would be sessions in people's local time zones, that we would somehow figure that out. It'll still be tricky, but it's only three days, and I'm willing to give up some sleep and stretch myself to make it happen.
It's been such a special experience to attend the congresses. I've attended ones in 2016, 2018, and 2022, and they've been really special experiences. I'm looking forward to being the host. This next time the Dabrowski Center is hosting it, there's more to come about the details. We'll let you know as soon as we know who the presenters are going to be. [Now we know who the presenters will be.]
Join us on July 11-13, 2024!