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Pre-conference options |
Tuesday, November 11
Online Pre-Conference Workshop (3 hours)
8:30 - 11:30 am
Populism & Dictatorship: Gamified Exploration of Us vs Them Cultures Today
George Simons and Amna Ben Amara
It's time for interculturalists to come to grips with the sociopolitical dynamics and political discourse seeking to dominate humankind with exclusive us versus them fear based cultural discourse. Have you got the guts to discuss the undiscussable? We will outfit you with safe space and tools to do so.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism in the environment, communities, or field(s) we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within the organizations we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within ourselves and the individuals we serve
Using the Intercultural to Make Race Visible: Supporting Students Critical Understanding of Race Across Cultures
Sherwood Smith
As your facilitator, I identify as a cisgender African American male who has worked in predominantly white institutions across the U.S., East Africa, and China, and traveled to many other countries. I believe our roles as facilitators, educators, and trainers are incomplete without addressing the cultural construction of race and broader systems of social injustice.
This session introduces key intercultural concepts and exercises to help facilitators and learners understand racial constructs across different cultural contexts. Participants will engage in discussions and sample exercises that connect intercultural development with domestic and international racial dynamics. We will also explore white identity development and related intercultural models as tools to better understand the role of race in shaping cross-cultural experiences.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism within ourselves and the individuals we serve
Online Pre-Conference Workshop (90 minutes)
8:30 - 10:00 am
Becoming the Work: Transformative Inclusion Across Identities as an Inner and Relational Practice
Anita Chandramouli, Usha Krishnan, and Poornasoundari Venkatesan
Inclusion isn’t something we implement, it’s something we live. We invite you into a powerful exploration of what it truly means to practice inclusion, not as a checklist or external goal, but as an ongoing inner commitment that transforms how we lead, teach, serve, and relate.
As political theorist Bhikhu Parekh emphasizes, cultures are not static or self-contained, they grow through engagement with others. This session targets to look at inclusion as a transformative practice that begins with the self and ripples outward into the systems we shape. Together, we’ll examine how dominant narratives often go unquestioned in our institutions and identities, and how true inclusion calls us to unlearn and re-centre our work around the voices and experiences, pushed to the margins.
Designed to spark critical insight and collective growth, using a mix of theory, visual frameworks and reflective practice, this experience is a call to move beyond performative diversity and truly become the work, with humility, intention, and accountability.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism within the organizations we serve
Zooming in on Intercultural Interactions: Theory and Practice of the TOPOI Model
Arjan Verdooren
The TOPOI model is an approach to intercultural communication that focuses on interaction, rather than culture persistence. It builds on a dynamic, multidimensional understanding of culture and identity that encourages learners to approach situations through the motto: cultures don't meet, people do. The acronym TOPOI then stands for the areas in the communication where potential confusion or tension can be identified: Tongue (Verbal and Non-Verbal Language), Order (Views and Logic), Persons (Identity and Relationship), Organization (Societal and Organizational Context) and Intentions (Motives and Needs).
The TOPOI model stands for a certain philosophy about communication in diverse and international contexts, that we will interactively discuss in this workshop. In addition, the acronym TOPOI stands for various areas of communication where misunderstanding or tension can be traced to. Together, these areas form a lens that we will use to zoom in on specific case scenarios. In addition, we will share TOPOI GPT, our newly developed AI bot, powered with the TOPOI Model.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism in the environment, communities, or field(s) we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within ourselves and the individuals we serve
10:15 - 11:45 am
Leadership Stories for Cultivating Civility & Connection
Thresette Briggs
In today’s polarized workplace, tensions across cultures, generations, and backgrounds can hinder teamwork, productivity, and inclusion. Yet, leaders often overlook one of their most powerful tools: their own stories. Backed by neuroscience and the SSOL (Setting, Situation, Outcome, Learning) storytelling framework, this interactive session helps leaders identify and shape real-life stories to promote civil discourse, reduce conflict, and foster stronger team connections. Participants will reflect on their lived experiences, practice using the framework with peers, and leave with actionable strategies and a template to apply storytelling in the workplace. Through story, leaders will learn how to shift perspectives, strengthen relationships, and inspire diverse teams. Whether influencing change, gaining buy-in, or bridging cultural divides, this session builds confidence, connection, and clarity—without relying on data alone. Ideal for leaders in education, consulting, or mission-driven sectors seeking practical ways to lead with empathy and impact.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism in the environment, communities, or field(s) we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within the organizations we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within ourselves and the individuals we serve
Online Pre-Conference Workshop (3 hours)
4:30 - 7:30 pm
The Power of Creativity for Navigating Differences and Transitions
Marie Sheffield and Tatyana Fertelmeyster
Creativity is a universal language that connects across cultures, identities, and change. In this experiential session, participants will explore creative expression—through movement, drawing, poetry, and mindfulness—as a powerful practice for intercultural leadership, facilitation, and healing. No artistic experience is necessary—just curiosity and openness. Designed for educators, facilitators, and community leaders, the workshop invites deeper reflection on how to navigate liminal spaces: those uncertain, in-between moments of conflict, transition, or transformation. Together, we’ll engage in hands-on activities that build emotional resilience, inclusive communication, and a sense of belonging. The session culminates in the co-creation of a collective poem—an emergent symbol of shared meaning-making across differences. Participants will leave with adaptable, arts-based tools and practices to foster connection and insight in both virtual and in-person settings.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism in the environment, communities, or field(s) we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within the organizations we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within ourselves and the individuals we serve
Online Pre-Conference Workshop (90 min.)
4:30 - 6:00 pm
The S.A.F.E. Facilitation Approach: Cultivating Conditions for Greater Trust in Groups Settings
Emily Braucher
Ready to sharpen your DEI facilitation skills and deepen your impact? This interactive session is designed for experienced DEI and intercultural professionals who lead complex conversations and want to elevate their approach. Using the S.A.F.E. Facilitation Approach (trademark pending), we will explore how to foster trust, psychological safety, and inclusion—even in high-stakes moments. Through self-assessment, structured peer dialogue, and the 4 R’s of Trust framework, you will surface new strategies, reflect on your facilitation style, and gain fresh insight into group dynamics. Interactive polling and experiential activities keep the learning grounded and engaging. You walk away with a clear sense of your facilitation strengths, new tools to expand your practice, and a focused action plan to create the conditions for trust in every room you lead. If you are ready to go beyond basics and sharpen your ability to lead across difference with skill and confidence, this session is for you.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism within the organizations we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within ourselves and the individuals we serve
Understanding What Drives Us: Using Universal Needs to Build High-Performing Teams
Jennifer Greenberg
What happens when we view our teams not just as collections of roles—but as human systems driven by core needs?
In this 90-minute interactive workshop, we introduce a powerful framework rooted in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to help teams name and navigate the universal human needs that shape how we work together. Through hands-on activities, participants will explore how unmet needs show up in workplace tension—and how identifying needs can foster empathy, clarity, and deeper inclusion.
You’ll leave with:
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A clear understanding of the universal needs framework
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Practical ways to use needs-awareness to strengthen team engagement and collaboration
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A set of simple tools you can bring to retrospectives, feedback sessions, and team development work
This workshop is especially relevant for faculty, team leaders, and anyone committed to building more human-centered organizational environments.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism within the organizations we serve
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Wednesday, November 12
In-Person Pre-Conference Workshop (6 hours)
8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Train-the-Trainer: Diversity Icebreaker for Communication & Collaboration - Building Bridges Across Differences
Bjørn Z Ekelund and Katherine Johnston
Join us for an interactive train-the-trainer pre-conference session that will equip you with the knowledge and skills to facilitate a 90-minute Diversity IcebreakerÒ seminar.
Diversity IcebreakerÒ offers a dynamic, research-based method that fosters psychological safety and trust. With 25+ years of proven impact in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary settings, DI helps teams and organizations to build common ground across differences.
You will explore the 3 communication styles—Red (relations), Blue (tasks), and Green (creativity / change)—and learn how to collaborate more effectively with people who think and work differently. The inclusive effect is both connected to the 90-minute DI seminar structure as well as to the categories of RBG as socially constructed and co-created categories.
You will take the online DI assessment and then work in several breakout groups to learn how to facilitate DI in multiple arenas, including personal development, teams, leadership programs, kick-offs offs and large-scale organizational change.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism within the organizations we serve
Now Showing! Theatre Activities for Promoting Intercultural Engagement and Inclusion
Aqueelah Roberson and Basma Ibrahim Devries
During these complex and uncertain times, skilled educators and trainers are called to respond to the moment by inspiring creativity, resourcefulness, and reflection. This highly interactive workshop engages participants in several unique, high-energy, intercultural learning activities, some adapted from Theatre for Social Change and Theatre of the Oppressed (developed by Augusto Boal, based on the work of Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed). The facilitators of this train-the-trainer workshop model intentionality in making space to create greater inclusivity and give participants the opportunity to discuss additional ways to be inclusive in their own facilitation. The session includes discussion on connections and adaptations for specific training goals. A core objective is to re-energize your teaching and training in innovative ways, so you can equip participants to better understand and appreciate similarities and differences, and strengthen and invigorate positive teamwork.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism in the environment, communities, or field(s) we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within the organizations we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within ourselves and the individuals we serve
In-Person Pre-Conference Workshop (3 hours)
8:30 am - 12:15 pm
Building Trust with Indigenous Employees: Exploring the Indigenous Workways Toolkit
Wendi Adair
This session offers guided hands-on engagement with on-line learning materials in the freely available Indigenous Workways Toolkit. Participants practice situating themselves in relation to the historical and contemporary context of Indigenous peoples in North America. They explore modules on Indigenous worldviews, relational communication, microaggressions in the workplace, understanding stereotype threat, holistic conflict management, and psychological/cultural safety in the workplace (bring your laptop). Small group discussions facilitate collaborative understanding and construction of pathways to build trust with Indigenous employees. In large group discussions, participants share their own experiences working with Indigenous peoples and strategize application of the toolkit’s organizational level resources that include developing an Indigenous employee mentorship program, hosting an Indigenous youth career camp/day, and conducting an organizational cultural safety audit. Participants leave with an individual and professional action plan to apply key concepts learned.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism within the organizations we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within ourselves and the individuals we serve
Be Your Highest and Best: Harness Brain-Based Strategies to Fuel Positive Change
Shannon Murphy
We live in unprecedented times—marked by division, uncertainty, and rising levels of stress. What happens in the brain under these conditions? How can we stay grounded and lead from our highest and best selves to foster inclusion and cultural agility?
Join us for this dynamic pre-conference workshop that explores how to harness neuroscience-based strategies to optimize your internal state and amplify your positive influence. This interactive workshop blends cutting-edge neuroscience with real-world tools you can apply immediately. You’ll complete the BrainStates Awareness Profile and learn a suite of accessible strategies to shift your BrainState, reduce stress, and show up as your highest and best—even in high-stakes situations. These tools will support you in building trust, fostering psychological safety, and drawing out the best in others - essential for working inclusively and being culturally agile.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism within ourselves and the individuals we serveIn-Person Pre-Conference Workshop (3 hours)
1:45 - 5:00 pm
Understanding and Engaging with (Y)Our Archetypes: An Encompassing Intercultural WorldView
Daniel Cantor Yalowitz, Ed.D.
What is an “archetype”? What do we “do” with them? How can – and do – they impact and influence our understanding of ourselves, our respective cultural upbringings, values, ways of being, and our identities – and our professional work and roles? This session will actively engage participants in a variety of activities enabling deepening awareness and practical understanding of the critical link between intercultural and archetypal perspectives and approaches in the context of intercultural work. We will explore how archetypes help build bridges between individuals and their collective social and interpersonal entities and endeavors. Throughout, we will focus on triggers and conflict in the workplace, whether with our professional colleagues or our clients. This workshop will heighten participants’ sensitivity to our human commonalities and differences. Using archetypal examples and situations from across the performing and creative arts, we will integrate interactive activities, exercises, and debriefing activities into our professional practice.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism in the environment, communities, or field(s) we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within ourselves and the individuals we serve
The Cultural Goose: Improving Communication and Cooperation When Cultures Meet in the Workplace
Allister Grapes
In this workshop, you’ll build actionable skills for bridging cultural divides and improving cross-cultural communication in organizational contexts. The centerpiece of the session is a creative, scenario-based exercise where teams will work to prepare a client for a workplace merger between two culturally distinct groups: a race of sentient “Geese” and local American “Sapiens.” The Geese are a proud and expressive culture that doesn’t always see eye to eye with Sapiens. How can we ensure that both communities will get along with one another despite their differing values and perspectives? In this workshop, we hope to spark meaningful conversations about different cultural communication styles and intergroup cooperation. Aimed at students, educators, and professionals, this workshop combines active, imaginative learning with practical, research-driven discussion and reflection.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism within the organizations we serve
INTRIVITY CERTIFICATION (formerly icEdge): Coaching intentional rather than habitual communication decisions in diverse communities
Nancy Buchan
Become certified in the INTRIVITY Assessment (formerly icEdge); an inventory of communication styles, built in the work of Edward T. Hall. Learn to coach others in interpretation of their MRTS (Message, Relationship, Time and Space) Communication Style Profile. Participants become equipped to empower clients/students through facilitating self and other-awareness in verbal and nonverbal communication styles, ultimately fostering greater inclusiveness in multicultural interactions. Through personalized communication style recommendations in the INTRIVITY feedback report, participants learn to guide clients/students to make intentional rather than habitual decisions about how to communicate, enabling clients/students to meaningfully connect with diverse communities.
The MRTS feedback includes communication style attitudes that will help clients/students recognize complex factors underlying faulty attribution and biases that can styme effective communication. Participants learn to guide and motivate students to develop skills of engaged listening for nonverbal cues to such biases, allowing them to break down communication barriers to inclusiveness.
Track: Inclusive Interculturalism in the environment, communities, or field(s) we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within the organizations we serve, Inclusive Interculturalism within ourselves and the individuals we serve|
In-Person Pre-Conference Workshops |
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Full Day |
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Pre-Conference Workshop : Member |
$185.00 |
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Pre-Conference Workshop : Non-Member |
$235.00 |
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Pre-Conference Workshop: Student/Senior |
$85.00 |
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1/2 Day |
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Pre-Conference Workshop : Member |
$125.00 |
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Pre-Conference Workshop : Non-Member |
$145.00 |
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Pre-Conference Workshop: Student/Senior |
$75.00 |
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1/2 Day x 2 (attend workshop AM & PM) |
$30 discount for 2 workshops |
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Pre-Conference Workshop : Member |
$220.00 |
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Pre-Conference Workshop : Non-Member |
$260.00 |
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Pre-Conference Workshop: Student/Senior |
$120.00 |