We’ve interviewed Glenn once before on the site to break down Canadian Revenue Agency guidelines for Animal Advocacy organizations with charitable status. A long time activist on the West Coast, organizer with Liberation B.C. and also co-owner of Nice Shoes, Glenn is a great resource when it comes to animal advocacy issues in Canada. I’ve been following his support for “UnConferences” and when I saw the Animal Advocacy Camp event come together I thought it would be a great opportunity to ask Glenn some questions about the structure, or lack thereof, of the Animal Advocacy Camp as well as the state of Conference organizing in Canada. The Animal Advocacy Camp runs next weekend, February 25-26th, in Vancouver, B.C.

How did the idea for the Advocacy Camp come about?

I’ve lived in Vancouver since 2004, and have been involved in animal rights and vegan activism here since soon after that. I met lots of people out at protests, potlucks, and other events and learned about all the different groups in town who were working on various issues – ranging from organizations with paid staff to single-person “groups” who ran websites, sent out emails, and tried to coordinate occasional demonstrations or other kinds of activism.

There seemed to be very little happening to bring people together in a “meta” space – a space where we’d get together to talk about what we’re doing, what works, what doesn’t, and so on. We’d see each other holding signs or leafleting, but there was very little time to talk about what we’re all doing and to share stories or plan.

Activists who were very passionate and had enough money would sometimes fly to DC or LA to go to the big AR conferences there. Let Live in Portland was great and we’d get a couple dozen people from Vancouver at that conference each year. I think it was seeing Let Live and how they created this wonderful event that brought a whole spectrum of activists together combined with an unconference event here in Vancouver called Change Camp that got me started on Animal Advocacy Camp. Change Camp was an event for people working in all kinds of social change, which was incredibly energizing, but I felt that Vancouver’s animal rights community needed something of our own.

Animal rights is still a very young social movement, and lacks the depth of experience and expertise (or confidence) that we need to effect change. Animal Advocacy Camp is a way to tap into the bits of expertise and insight we each have and can teach each other.

What decision making went into putting together the speakers list?

My own personal impulse would be to have no set speakers. While I enjoy hearing a presentation from an “expert,” I think that there are other formats that work better to draw our own knowledge out. If we expect all of the answers to come from someone else we’ll be less effective and powerful on our own.

But, for this year’s event we added in opening and closing speakers. My hope is that their talks will get people talking and exploring their own ideas.

We invited people who are involved in animal rights and vegan advocacy work in Canada. I think it’s important to build our own Canadian movement instead of being the junior partner of the United States.

Camille Labchuck will be our opening speaker. She’s going to talk about politics and making the AR movement in Canada more political.

Rob Laidlaw is the Executive Director and Founder of Zoocheck Canada, and he’ll be delivering the closing talk on Saturday.

Lesley Fox is a close personal friend and Executive Director of The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals (also known as the organization with the longest name ever, as well as Fur-Bearer Defenders). Lesley will be delivering the opening talk on Sunday.

Closing out the weekend will be Sarah Kramer, who will be running a fun gameshow-style presentation. After all the serious talking and discussion we’ll need something lighthearted to bring us together and make us smile again!

Can you tell us a bit about the Open Meeting UnConference format that the Camp will run on? Why diverge from the traditional Conference format?

Because we have opening and closing speakers we’ve diverged from the traditional “Open Space” format a bit. In between those bookends, we’re keeping the event as attendee-led as possible.

After the opening talk, we’ll do the “agenda setting.” Anyone there can add a breakout session topic to the agenda. All they have to do is write it down on a piece of paper along with their name, stand up and announce the topic, and then go put it on the agenda. The agenda is posted up on a wall. We’ll have someone at the agenda wall to help, but it’s up to the people posting their topics to decide which time slot to put it in. If there are too many topics for any time slots it’s up to the people proposing those topics to sort it out. After that it runs pretty much like a normal conference, except that the breakout sessions end up being more discussion-oriented than the traditional speaker or panel presentations.

Some people find this format intimidating. I think we’re all too used to being told where to go at what time, and how to work. We’re all adults (or close) and should be able to stand up and make decisions on our own by now.

At the last event I recall one person had posted up a couple of topics. Very few people attended his first breakout session. Because of that he rethought the way he had worded the later topic and revised it – and more people came to that one. I loved seeing that learning taking place right there.

I know some people may be afraid of speaking in front of other people, that no one will come to their session, that they’ll be neglected or abandoned. Actually, I’m terrified of all of those things myself. But creating an effective movement requires that we overcome these groundless fears. If no one comes to a session I’ve proposed I can learn from that, spend time working on it myself, or join another discussion. My topic might be very important, and there are many reasons why no one else was interested at this time.

I also think that hierarchical systems are not the best way for many people to learn. We learn best by doing and experiencing on our own. We learn by talking and sharing. I might remember a couple of things that any of the “leaders” in the AR movement have said in talks, but if I can sit down and talk with them, share ideas back and forth, then we both learn and grow, and I learn way more than I would have.

Plus, the best part of any conference is lunch and coffee breaks, right? Talking to your peers and making connections – that’s where the real value comes.

Do you feel like there is a lack of events like this is in Canada?

Most definitely. We have no national conferences, and I’m unaware of regional ones. We’ve got some regional veg fests and similar events, but nothing to bring activists together for the purpose of talking about our activism and our movement.

I get excited thinking about this sort of thing, but imagine if we had a national conference in Canada of activists from all over the country? It could be in a different city each year, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Halifax, and so on around the country. Conferences bring people of a wide variety of approaches and experiences together and then send them back out to their own communities – like bees pollinating flowers.

I’d love to see unconference-style events all across the country as well as a national conference. Unconferences are great because they’re relatively easy to organize and cost less then a more organized traditional-style conference.

What do you hope people will take away from the Camp?

I’m just hoping that people will participate, enjoy themselves, and learn. I’d like to see people cross-pollinating and seeing from other perspectives, but I’m trying to keep my own expectations in check. And I’d ask anyone who’s attending to try to leave their own expectations at the door. When we bring expectations to something like this we’re almost always disappointed or frustrated. Outcomes vary so much that there’s no point in getting stuck on what I want or what you want. Whatever happens is the right thing.

Will anything from the Camp be posted online afterwards to be used as a resource for those who couldn’t make it?

We’re aiming to post all notes from the event on the event website as well as some videos and photos. Jenni Rempel, our “media sponsor,” will be filming the opening and closing speakers and hopefully some of the breakout sessions as well.

What advice would have you have for others who are thinking about organizing a similar event where they live?

One, go for it. Don’t spend a bunch of time worrying about it being perfect or pleasing everyone. It won’t be perfect and you can’t ever please everyone.

There are a ton of resources online about planning and running an Open Space event. I wrote a short blog post about it a while ago that has some links to resources. Probably the best way to see how an event like this runs is to attend one – lots of tech and social change events are run as unconferences.

The space is important, but many spaces will work. The really cool thing about Open Space events is watching the self-organizing happen. If you plan for certain rooms to be used certain ways and it doesn’t work for the attendees, they need to be empowered to change it. As the convener, assert enough control to keep the space clear and open, then get out of the way and let the event happen.

Don’t be afraid to modify the format to fit your community.

I’m always happy to share my limited experience with anyone who’s interested in organizing an event like this.

To learn more about Vancouver’s Animal Advocacy Camp, visit AnimalAdvocacyCamp.ca.