1. Background of Bluebar
- Began 5 years ago by Luca and Tina as part of an online facilitation course
- The result of realizing that ‘essential’ information regarding FAO activities of all sorts was sought after but not easily found; in fact, a lot of valuable information is caught through informal chatting over coffee – hence, the birth of the Bluebar (an actual FAO coffee bar)
- Grew from a small group – basically a loose invitation to participants of that online facilitation course – to over 100 members today
- Formed as an informal network of communicators with no structure or hierarchy
- Online presence through Dgroups list with occasional face-to-face coffees at the FAO Bluebar
- Focuses on practical information and issues
2. Success of Bluebar
- Brings like-minded people together
- Informal, no hierarchy
- Membership is voluntary
- Organic, ‘under the radar’
- Good place to meet others across the organization (and in other Rome-based agencies)
- Great place for recommendations, advice, tips, as a sounding board
- Fosters level of trust among members
- A ‘comfort zone’
- Bridges an institutional information gap
- Not for self-promoters
- Co-shared facilitation helps orient meetings and contact
- Mutually supportive membership
3. Discussion on the Bluebar and future considerations
- Ever thought of measuring the potential ripple effect, to see what is the ‘impact’?
- Measuring impact of the Bluebar could be an interesting exercise, but isn’t essential
- Ever thought of advertising?
- Advertising could kill the nature of the Bluebar – it’s strength is that it is organic with a self-selecting and motivated membership
- Ever thought of distributing short summaries of the face-to-face Bluebar gatherings?
- Summaries would be a good idea for those unable to attend the coffee meetings
- Could the ‘model’ work in a smaller environment?
- The Bluebar could undoubtedly be replicated in another environment if all the similar ingredients are present, especially the need for it and good will to have it
- Could FAO field staff participate? If so, how?
- All interested people can participate, including FAO field staff – members can invite others
4. Wrap-up
- The Bluebar is its own niche and, for the time being, responds to certain needs
- Tina/Luca will initiate ‘Bluebar Notes’ to summarize face-to-face meetings
- Nora will keep us posted if she starts a similar group at Bioversity
No comments:
Post a Comment