[Home]    [Guidelines]   [Taste Education]    [Examples]     [Appendix] A guide to organizing Slow Food activities, projects and events Introduction and Acknowledgements Welcome to Convivial Pursuits, a guide that helps convivium leaders help each other. One of the most vital roles you play as the leader of your convivium is in organizing activities. Convivium activities are very important to the movement because they are the way in which the Slow Food philosophy is made real. These activities are often the first point of contact for people – like us – that are interested in good, clean and fair food. Many convivium leaders, and hopefully you yourself, have found that the more activities a convivium holds the more members tend to join and renew. This is certainly something we want, and will help the movement increase its presence and the difference it can make in our communities, but it is not the only purpose of activities. The events you organize are also the venue for your existing members to get together, share stories, flavors, ideas and the passion that unites the entire Slow Food movement. It is for this reason that an active convivium is a successful convivium. But then, what is a successful activity? As we have learned in talking to leaders all over the world, convivia can have any number of goals and countless ways to achieve them. But whether your goal is to raise money for Terra Madre, share a quiet meal with other members, defend biodiversity, a combination of these or something altogether different, a successful activity is one with a clear goal that it meets while making every effort to break even financially. For this, the options are many, and the strategies numerous; with that in mind, we have collected a number of examples from convivia worldwide to illustrate some possible goals and some ways to achieve them. From a dinner highlighting sustainable fishing practice in Spain to a successful fundraiser in Maine, from a farmers' market in Lebanon to a camp-oven cook off in Australia, we hope that these stories will inspire convivium leaders everywhere – offering a starting point for new convivium leaders and some new ideas for those that have been doing this a little longer. This guide has come from all of you, and it is for all of you. We are as ever grateful for all of the work you have done, not only on this guide, but also in creating a vibrant and dynamic part of the movement in your area. And like the Slow Food movement, this guide will always be a work-in-progress that can only benefit from your input. We've chosen this online format to allow the guide to be easily updated and hope you'll contribute your ideas and suggestions and more examples to make it even better - just write to us at international@slowfood.com. [Next] >>