We are witnessing the return of the storytellers; an emerging cultural fabric and grassroots media environment that will require far more imaginative paths for engaging the public, developing leaders and envisioning the future. This workshop will illustrate how to use interactive story strategies to further your organizational goals and take your message to the next level.

Tuesday 1:00-3:00 pm, Philip and Mikela Tarlow

Consultants and authors Philip and Mikela Tarlow will offer an overview of how other groups have used interactive story strategies to accomplish a wide variety of results. This eye-opening survey is designed to expand your horizons for what is possible and trigger ideas you can apply to your own organization. They will then offer examples from a recent project with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies in Homer, Alaska so you can see how these ideas have been applied to real life organizational issues.

We naturally frame and remember information, values and visions through stories. Revealing this natural knowledge is a highly effective way to explore how an organization or community sees itself and their expectations for the future. It is a powerful path for involving a wide variety of stakeholders in an engaging creative process that rapidly increases community participation.

(Philip and Mikela will also be providing a video blog during the Congress and will offer insights about this strategy. They are available throughout the Congress to answer more personal questions you may have about interactive media strategies for your organization, so feel free to contact them at philip@digitalaboriginal.com)

Short Bio: Based on 20 years of corporate consulting and leadership training in a wide varied of venues, Mikela and Philip Tarlow developed The StoryLab Project™, a customized platform for applying key storytelling trends to a particular organization or set of strategic objectives. Their clients have included Fortune 500 companies such as Coca Cola, Boeing and Best Buy, non-profits, government agencies, small businesses and entrepreneurs from all walks of life.

The Tarlows most recent book, Digital Aboriginal; The Direction of Business Now- Instinctive, Nomadic and Ever-Changing (Warner Business, 2002) offered a dramatic window on the future of business. Their previous book, Navigating the Future (McGraw-Hill, 2000) explored the new kinds of intelligence needed to cope with an accelerating culture. They are currently working on a practical guide to grassroots media, interactive storytelling and the unprecedented creative opportunities it offers individual leaders, communities and organizations.