No-Fly Conferences

No-Fly Conferences

Details  GATE is committed to design, development and demonstration of ways to meet and share progress without high intensity international travel.Tags    Conference 
The BigDO

The BigDO

Details  The Ultimate Shift Project
Imagine an international meeting of the 50 largest corporate and national oil production, refining and fuel retail companies with the purpose to negotiate the net zero production downshift.
Signs of Change

Signs of Change

Details  The world first no-flying national conference was designed, tested, organised and successfully held in 2010 in New Zealand. Watch the 40 presentations from around the country of people from all walks of life describing their work on transition and emergence of sustainability.Link  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaVbIuA...
Ideas Beyond Targets

Ideas Beyond Targets

Details  A series of brainstorm workshops have been held around the world in advance of the COP21 Meeting. The objective is for engineering students and young professional engineers to work with students from other disciplines to generate a set of project briefs for ideas beyond the usual climate change targets.Link  https://www.aemslab.org.nz/transitioncl...

GATE is joining together with other organisations to explore a new type of Conference that delivers Convergence and Action. We don't want to fly around the world. We want to listen to presentations that involve deep learning and present new ideas. We want to make connections. We want to make progress. We want to make change.  


 

Technology Challenge

Many academics and professionals agree that conferences have become largely about travel and making money off registrations. This is a wicked problem. We are supposed to attend conferences and present our latest research as part of our jobs. Traveling to cool places is fun. Air travel is increasingly time consuming and dehumanising. Air travel is patently unsustainable, polluting, causes jet trails and throw-away ammenities. Air travel is the only way to get to most conferences. If we don't have conferences, how will we meet people in our field, contribute and learn new things?

SHIFT PROJECT:  The No-Flying Conference.  The technology is possible, but it will require an innovation to create and deliver a full package of technologies that are deployed successfully and seamlessly at all venues. We are working with IT providers to develop the technology platform. 

Format Challenge

We are going to have simultaneous conferences in different locations, and the requirement for design of the conference is action.  We want all the benefits of a conference, much less expense and time wasted in travel, 1000x lower footprint, and networking.  But we also want outcomes. We want the future to be different because we held that conference. The probability of avoiding climate crash gets just a little better because of that conference. 

Action Convergence Concept:  Imagine that Transition Engineers around the world have been carrying out the 7 step method and making disruptive discoveries about shift projects that could transition wicked problems. Isn't that what you would really like to hear about?  Wouldn't you like to have them walk through their wicked problem and the history, present situation, testing the scenarios and exploring the 100 year future?  And wouldn't you like to brainstorm with a group of experts and enthusiasts and students on triggers and shift project ideas?  And wouldn't it be great to contribute to development of the shift projects into business cases, and hear the best shift projects pitched to the industries or organisations who could do them?  

Organisation Challenge

Convergent conferences mean that each venue needs an organisation, and there needs to be an organising committee over the whole event. We are working with event organisers to develop their new offering for Convergent Conferences. 

 

4th International Conference

4th International Conference

Details  18 August 2023
Remote Connections Orkney Scotland to Christchurch New Zealand
AGM and Transition Engineering Presentations
2nd Conference 19 Sept 2018

2nd Conference 19 Sept 2018

Details  The Big Do
19 Sept 2018

Conference Venues: 
Bristol University, UK. 8:30am - 5:30 pm 
Canterbury University, NZ, 5:30 pm - 11:00 pm
Webcast - Going Global

Tags    Meetings 
1st International GATE Conference

1st International GATE Conference

Date  September 08, 2017Details  GATE 2018 Breaks new ground with global "no-travel" design
GATE didn't want people to have to fly to the conference. Thus we organized an e-conference with venues in New Zealand and UK, and live webfeed to people around the world. We reduced the greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80% AND we all slept better. Other benefits included much higher attendance, and not having to go through airport security. 
Read Article on IMechE
InTIME Design

InTIME Design

Details  

Ongoing Shift Project for Low CO2 High Impact Conferences  

24 HOURS AROUND THE WORLD

We have an idea for a Shift Project! We are developing a new concept for a way to carry out conferences that does not involve flying between continents. Watch this space as we work out the design details, find technology providers who want to develop the new IT and organisation app, and the international chain who wants to deliver the venue services.