Episode 7 - Ecozoic Conferencing with Dina Spigelski and Deissy Perilla

Today we're exploring a question many of us have wondered after sitting through another exhausting conference or overly scheduled retreat: why do so many professional gatherings leave us feeling drained when they could leave us feeling inspired?In this episode, we're joined by two people who have spent years experimenting with ways to make that possible. Our guests, Dina Spigelski and Deissy Perilla, share practical, concrete advice for designing conferences, retreats, and team gatherings that people actually enjoy attending. We're talking about everything from choosing locations that foster connection, to building planning committees that share responsibility, to creating space for play alongside serious intellectual work. Between Dina's experience coordinating large collaborative research projects and Deissy's background in anthropology, popular education, and grassroots organizing, the two have spent years thinking about what helps groups of people meaningfully connect and learn together. Through their work with the Leadership for the Ecozoic initiative—Dina as Associate Director of Leadership and Deissy as Project Coordinator—they developed and refined an approach to designing professional gatherings that aim to leave participants feeling energized rather than depleted.In this conversation, they generously share the lessons they've learned along the way, including what has worked, what hasn't, and what has surprised them most. So if you're planning a work gathering of any kind, you'll come away with ideas you can put into practice right away to make it more engaging and memorable.--Links: L4E:⁠ ⁠l4ecozoic.org⁠⁠Critical Media Lab: ⁠⁠criticalmedialabmcgill.com⁠⁠Radio Ecozoic is created and hosted by Bobi Steel, Juliana Neira and Lindsay Ofrias. It is executive produced by Julian Flavin and Alana Redden. Music by Marxist Jargon. The show is a project of the Leadership for the Ecozoic initiative, which is based at McGill University and the University of Vermont, as well as the Critical Media Lab, which is housed in McGill’s University Department of Anthropology.