As part of the Strong Communities, Local Economies conference in Kilkenny this week we are delighted to have the chance to host two stimulating talks in the evening at Butler house for the general public. The talks will be given by David Engwicht and Cyril Dion , two speakers who are presenting at the conference.
David Engwicht – Creative Communities
Wed 26th May, 8pm, Butler House, Patrick Street, Kilkenny
David Engwicht is an artist, social innovator, street philosopher and is considered one of the world’s most innovative thinkers on traffic, community life and urban design.
He is author of several books including Reclaiming our Cities and Towns: Better Living through Less Traffic (1993), Street Reclaiming: Creating Livable Streets and Vibrant Communities (1999), and Mental Speed Bumps: The smarter way to tame traffic (2005).
His writing can be seen as describing a major dilemma of technics-out-of-control in the second half of the 20th century. His workshops and talks are rich with ideas and inspirations for communities to reclaim control over the abandoned public realm.
David is also a mask maker and sculptor and teaches courses on creativity and innovation. He is co-founder of Creative Communities International, an incubator for social innovations. When not traveling, he lives in Brisbane, Australia.
Cyril Dion – The Colibri Movement
Thursday 27th May, 8pm, Butler House, Patrick Street, Kilkenny
The aim of Colibris movement is to empower people who want to create new society models, based on autonomy, ecology and humanism. It is similar in many ways to the Irish and UK transition networks and indeed supports many “transition” type groups in France.
Colibris strongly believes that change will come from a bottom-up, organic process, where citizens, business holders, politicians, farmers and teachers will take action locally, taking responsibility for their own destiny, as individuals and communities.
Some of the projects they are involved in include creating local agriculture, establishing local or free currencies, advocating for ecological governance models, building ecological homes and neighborhoods, creating new schools based on non-violent and ecological approaches, building climate plans to reduce CO2 emissions and dependency on fossil energies.
Cyril Dion co-founded with Pierre Rabhi – one of the pioneers of agroecology worldwide – the COLIBRIS movement in November 2006. He is presently the Manager of the organisation working with 50 groups in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec.