To stimulate interaction and discussion among conference delegates, the second morning of the conference was devoted to an interactive session.
People were divided into subgroups of eight and used Ketso (www.ketso.com), a hands-on kit for creative engagement, to discuss how landscape science, policy and practice can better work together to ensure sustainable use of land and the services it provides to society. Using Ketso the subgroups constructed physical mindmaps, with differently coloured leaves to provide answers to three sequential questions. In this way delegates worked as a team to develop ideas for landscape ecology, and see them from different perspectives.
The session, which ran for three hours, was a lively event with serious discussion combined with outbursts of laughter. Although there was some confusion about the process, most delegates seemed to have a good time and enjoy the interaction. The results from the Ketso mindmaps have been typed up in a substantial spreadsheet with over 1200 entries, awaiting analysis in the coming months.