Conference Sketches

By Helen Peacock

5th Annual International Enneagram Association Conference
Toronto, Canada, August 5 – 8, 1999

“There is something unique and wonderful about attending an Enneagram conference. There aren’t that many other place where you meet someone in an elevator, and the first question you get is “So, what type are you?””

So began the keynote speech of the 5th International Enneagram Association (IEA) conference. This conference attracted over 450 participants from 17 countries around the world, and included such well-known authors as Helen Palmer, David Daniels, Don Riso, Russ Hudson, Kathy Hurley, Theodorre Donson, Pat O’Leary and Jerry Wagner.

The keynote speech was given by Tony Schwarz, biographer of Donald Trump, and author of “What Really Matters – Searching for Wisdom in America”. Tony spoke passionately about the Enneagram as a tool for growth and transformation, and set the tone for the over 30 other presentations the conference offered.

On the pre-conference day, for the first time in IEA history, the program focussed attention on the use of the Enneagram in organizations – for executive coaching, team building, leadership, communication, succession planning, recruiting and organizational design.

Other workshops during the conference covered applications for counseling, health care, education, and personal and spiritual growth. The conference concluded with a panel discussion of different spiritual perspectives on type, moderated by Helen Palmer, which examined the Enneagram, Christian, Sufi, Kabbalistic and Buddhist views of personality type and the false self.

As a community, the IEA celebrated the quality and depth of the conference experience. For more information, contact Helen Peacock, IEA President, 416-233-8466, helen.peacock@sympatico.ca