Introduction

The Future Is Now. It is a quantum leap, of sorts! A transformed civilization is taking shape with the impact of a technology so new that most of us can hardly name it. How do you bring together a few hundred persons to discuss that future, which is already becoming a reality? How do you keep them interested for three days while motivating them to take charge of follow-up?

Answer: You take a wild guess. Above all, you must not take yourself too seriously. Then, select themes which will concern and fascinate. Find excellent resource persons. Persist with determination through the inevitable confusion and difficulties to the very last word of the final plenary session. When all is over, give in to the laughter of success, to the collective hysteria that follows exhaustion, to the manifestations of friendship and solidarity which crystallize new learning.

"The Future Is Now: Women and the Impact of Microtechnology" was a first, inasmuch as it resulted from the joint effort of four national women's organizations. It was a unique event, since participation far exceeded the expectations of organizers.

Early June: many have requested information, but few have registered. Mid-June: Will we reach our objective of 500 registrants? The conference opens June 25: more than 550 participants register. At times, 600 people are milling through the workshops and the exhibits. The student residences fill up; the meeting rooms are crowded; a flow of information and ideas settles in to last until the end of the event. All points of view are voiced: here, we express concern over health hazards; there, we praise the invaluable potential of computers for the handicapped. While one workshop makes claims for reform, another concludes on the need for individual involvement. Friendships are born; business cards are exchanged; participants greet each other warmly; plans of action are reached. In one room a speaker, stunned to have discovered she is expected to participate in the program, improvises a presentation, while elsewhere, an old lady leaning on a cane marvels, "how lucky you will be to live that!"

Interest did not wane throughout the three days of the conference; this has been confirmed by a survey, conducted several months after the event, which indicated that many cherish their memories of the conference. Having been assailed for several years by baffling and seemingly contradictory information, sometimes disconcerted by the esoteric language of technology, anxious to find directions and to share their knowledge and their fears, participants arrived in Ottawa in an open, questioning frame of mind. In these circumstances, the meeting could only become a dynamic process, welcoming the contribution of each participant, more geared to spontaneous interventions than to the established program.

One of the richest aspects of the dynamics was certainly the acceptance of the need for personal commitment to conference follow-up. It was readily recognized that the adoption of pious resolutions would only serve to adorn the most forgotten shelves. Any corrective or innovative action must first come from the self, from one's organization, from one's environment. Nothing could be more exacting; nothing could be more certain.

It is a pleasure to publish the report of such a conference! We are even able to report on the personal or public follow-up of several participants. A word to the incredulous: you will never be so happy to have been wrong! To the degree that it was a process, it can be said that the conference, "Women and the Impact of Microtechnology... has never ended. It simmers and surges forward in the spirit and actions of so many Canadian women!