1. Welcome and introduction

Last year we came together online to celebrate APC’s 30th anniversary. We hoped at the time that we would be able to meet soon face-to-face, globally or at least regionally. But the year 2021 has proved us wrong. This year has shown us, side-by-side, both the incredible acts of solidarity, support and collaboration among people and groups, and incalculable greed and grief. We’ve all witnessed, and some APC members have directly experienced, and continue to experience, the brute force of authoritarianism, militarisation, nationalism and anti-rights ideology and the denial of access to vaccines and proper public global health responses.

This year’s member convening continues the online conversation we began in 2020 with an eye to the future. Reconnecting members’ local and national realities with the larger APC member community and its shared global context addressed via the APC strategic plan, whose direction and content are informed by the member network and governed by the APC council, and which embodies how we thrive, change and generate changes globally as well locally.

APC members will have time to meet one-on-one and all together, to get to know each other (many new members have joined since the last face-to-face event in 2017) and to strengthen the collective sense of purpose that inspires the APC network. During five days we will learn about one another (context), share stories of engagement and solidarity (strengthening human interconnection), and share what we do and what other new things we could do together.

How we grow as a network, how members, both individually and as formal/informal collectives, adjust their plans/insights, how we ourselves and/or our focus areas are being changed by these times (concrete collaboration and mutual building of capacity).

Three overarching questions will lead and inform our five days together:

1. How have you, as members of the APC network, been able to thrive and adapt?

2. What are your insights for the future, and what are you looking to in the future?

3. How can your strategy and insights for the future, as individuals, collectives and organisations, conflate with/inspire/guide the development (and growth?) of the APC network?

We invite everyone to plan to spend an average of 4.5 hours per day between sessions, pop-up and care spaces, the marketplace/exhibition space, and of course, the APC member party. We will share some discomfort around time zones to make it possible for people to meet across regions and continents, playing around with scheduling plenary sessions, giving our best selves to manage the complexity of a global network meeting remotely. Activities will start from 03:00 UTC and end by 22:00 UTC. However, nobody is expected to spend more than 4.5 to 5 hours a day in the meeting. We all need rest and time offline.

There will be several breaks throughout every day when no activities are scheduled on the programme.

How this online event is organised

(The different types of sessions noted in the table are described in the next section)

Day 0	Orientation	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop up	Guided tour
8, 9 or 10 Nov	5 walks through platforms, tools and programme, scheduled to suit different time zones
Day 1	Theme	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop-up	Guided tour
15 Nov	The APC member network, a community of communities	2 opening plenaries same content, scheduled to suit different time zones – 90 minutes each (interpretation / captioning / documentation)	8 sessions between 60 and 90 minutes for members’ encounters with use of their presentations: e.g. regional, new members, larger thematic cluster	Self-managed and promoted by members	3 times a day, members’ presentations guided tour
Day 2	Theme	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop-up	Guided tour
16 Nov	Member collaboration(s), how we thrive: Stories, practices and projects of solidarity	1 plenary for all members to attend, Asia/Pacific time zone-friendly, 90 minutes (interpretation / captioning / documentation)	3 thematic sessions of 90 minutes distributed across time zones	Self-managed and promoted by members	3 times a day, members’ presentations guided tour
Day 3	Theme	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop-up	Guided tour
17 Nov	Member collaboration(s) and building of capacity	1 plenary for all members to attend, Africa/Europe time zone-friendly, 90 minutes (interpretation / captioning / documentation)	3 thematic sessions of 90 minutes distributed across time zones	Self-managed and promoted by members	3 times a day, members’ presentations guided tour
Day 4	Theme	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop-up	Guided tour
18 Nov	Member collaboration(s) and building of capacity	1 plenary for all members to attend, Americas time zone-friendly, 90 minutes (interpretation / captioning / documentation)	3 thematic sessions of 90 minutes distributed across time zones	Self-managed and promoted by members	3 times a day, members’ presentations guided tour
Day 5	Theme	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop-up	Guided tour
19 Nov		2 closing plenaries and a party, same content, scheduled to suit different time zones – 90 minutes each (interpretation / captioning / documentation)	4 thematic sessions of 90 minutes distributed across time zones	Self-managed and promoted by members	3 times a day, members’ presentations guided tour

We will close the APC member convening reflecting on the key highlights from the event sessions, under the sign of our Best Future Awards.

Types of sessions

All sessions – plenaries, interconnections and pop-up sessions – are member-to-member opportunities to (re)connect, thrive and build a stronger and resilient APC network. APC staff will be there to support, link and connect, co-facilitate conversations, and learn and engage with issues chosen by members.

1. Plenaries are 90-minute-long sessions. They are co-created with the convening preparatory group, including board members and staff, with the support of APC staff.

• Days 1 and 5 will have two plenaries, opening and closing the formal part of the event.

• Days 2, 3 and 4 will have one plenary daily to address the collective future of the network. Each plenary will take place in one of the wide range of APC member time zones and all members are invited to join their friends in faraway time zones for 90 minutes of collective thinking and planning for the future of our network.

2. Interconnections are 90-minute-long contextualised conversations suggested by members and rooted in their practices and visions.

• • They will take place on Days 2, 3 and 4. If necessary, they might run in parallel with other thematic/regional interconnections or pop-up sessions. On Day 1, eight interconnection sessions will take place to facilitate member encounters according to various clusters, such as introducing new members or regional meetings.

3. Pop-ups are self-organised shorter sessions between 30 and 60 minutes long on any topic, including fun-and-care time.

• • Pop-ups can use “instant rooms” created on the fly in our conferencing system (BigBlueButton), or permanent rooms available via the main convening platform created for the event. Members that would like to schedule a pop-up session instead of having one on the fly can reach out to APC staff, who will update the pop-up section of the APC member convening schedule.

4. The marketplace is the permanent space that will host all material shared by members. In consideration of the large connectivity spectrum covered by APC members, and acknowledging various degrees of access privilege, the APC member convening will use the APC EVENT platform (a custom site currently being prepared by the APC tech team) as its main site for the exhibition/marketplace, providing slides shows, galleries and other user-friendly ways of showcasing content and accompanying this with curator teams of members and APC staff available to guide visitors in a live exploration with anecdotes, facts and stories of the members and materials in the exhibition.

5. Party – A party will take place on the last day together with the first edition of the Best Futures Awards. Playlists, comedians, tickets for local shows: APC has a long and successful tradition of hosting eventful, fun-filled parties with unexpected moments. Everyone is invited to join the committee that will throw the most memorable online and yet on-site party of the year!