Global learning initiative Boma launches in New Zealand

Originally published in The Press on 27 July 2018.

Kaila Colbin, co-founder of Boma, said the new learning initiative was about being "more intentional and intelligent about the future we are creating".

A new global learning initiative with links to New Zealand sets out to walk the walk while talking the talk to help solve future problems on a huge scale.

Boma launched in Christchurch on Thursday. Christchurch-based Kaila Colbin is one of four partners who started the organisation.

Colbin said Boma will deliver a range of learning events discussing technological, geopolitical, economic and social change, as well as climate change.

Boma co-founders from left, Michel Levy-Provencal, Lara Stein, Stephan Balzer, and Kaila Colbin. Colbin said Boma's events were "designed explicitly to generate tangible impact and outcomes, creating a better, more sustainable, and more human-centred future".

When these "vectors of change" combine, humanity is faced with "a future that is highly uncertain and ambiguous", she said.

Boma's events will range from free community events, to corporate training, to Jeffersonian-style "impact dinners" where groups gather to debate particularly "thorny" topics.

"We need to have more robust ways of dealing with this uncertain and ambiguous future, so we can be more intentional and intelligent about the future we are creating," Colbin said.

"Boma is specifically focused on these vectors of change affecting our future, and all the work we do on our events is designed towards outcomes rather than ideas."

Colbin is co-founder of the Ministry of Awesome, director of ChristchurchNZ, curator of SingularityU New Zealand and has held the Christchurch licence for TEDx events since before the earthquakes.

Last year, she ran a TEDx event at Scott Base, Antarctica.

Joining her as Boma co-founders are TEDx founder Lara Stein, TEDxBerlin founder Stephan Balzer, and TEDxParis founder Michel Lévy-Provençal.

"It's pretty cool that this global organisation has started from Germany, France, the United States and Ōtautahi Christchurch," she said.

"The organisation is self-funded right now by the founders, and the offerings we will have range from free events for the community to paid events that people attend."

Christchurch's first Boma event would be a "fishbowl" discussion on August 23. It would be free and open to the public to attend and participate.

Colbin said there would be an impact dinner at about the same time, but the date had yet to be confirmed.

"Our industry summits and conferences, executive education, and customised programmes are designed explicitly to generate tangible impact and outcomes, creating a better, more sustainable, and more human-centred future," Colbin said.

Boma was launched globally in Paris on July 4. It launched in Auckland and Wellington earlier this week. 

More details of Boma events are available on its website.

- Stuff