Global Gathering colleagues from Virginia Tech

The Global Gathering and Virginia Tech

In September, I met with Max Stephenson, Director Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance; (below) and Wolfgang Natter (above), Professor, Political Science; and, Director of Virginia Tech's Alliance of Social, Political, Ethical, Cultural Thought (ASPECT) about the Global Gathering. It was the first time Wolfgang had heard about the idea of bringing together a cohort of transformational leaders, international social entrepreneurs. He and Max expressed interest in sponsoring the event at Virginia Tech. "There are thirty faculty who would be very interested in this," said Wolfgang.

"So, what's next?" asked Max. I said I would send them a narrative description of the Gathering; and, that I would talk with Elisa Sabatini about our conversation. Since then the conversation has expanded. The written narrative is ready to be shared. Elisa is in process confirming invitations to the list of international leaders. A date has been set: October 5-9, 2009. A tentative date has been suggested for the second Gathering at Virginia Tech, April 5-9, 2010.

Wolfgang invited me to speak to the ASPECT group in October, I think I will talk about the Global Gathering, who some of our invitees are, what their stories are, what they share in common and the nature of their creative, ethical leadership.