When I suggested the above title for the song at the finale no-one knew the original song “Papa was a rolling stone” by the Temptations in 1972. So it was rejected by the non-English interculturalists and those under 60 .
Organised by Papa Baba Ndong, despite Sietar, and having his lap-top stolen the day before the Congress was a total success because everyone who attended had the good will to make it so.
“You never knew what would be happening next – but you could trust it would always be good” – and there are a lot of lessons to be absorbed from Global South as to how to run such an event
Apart from presentations Papa managed to fit in four musical events, three art shows, and, for strangers to Valencia, visits, events and dinners in iconic places.
Because of his connections I believe he negotiated the venues at the Universitat Politècnica de València, for free and that required some flexibility as places got occupied by paying events. Similarly there was an adjacent university café and restaurant open during normal work days but not on public holidays and Saturdays – requiring last minute improvisation skills all competently carried out.
The decision to merge four streams into one was the right one, instigated by our friends from Netherlands who are used to order, but coped well with the very flexible timing.
As marketed the event was in three languages: English, French and Spanish. For those who attended my presentation “How to include all your Diverse Audience” I stressed the importance of putting a lot of the words actually on the slides to help those who were fluent in that language gain more understanding . And certainly for me, those who put the words in the slides helped my understanding of the French and the Spanish .
Professional Presentations – but not always: Each participant feels seen, heard, valued, and engaged
I have not attended many ‘academic events’ but my recollection of professors just sitting or standing just reading out their notes in whatever language they chose, might go down well in a classroom (though it shouldn’t), but it is totally unacceptable and unprofessional at a multilingual Congress. Those presenters need to be told. But it rekky was the exception. The professioals know better.
Presenters and Guests made the effort to come from India, USA, Canada, Africa, Caribbean, UAE, South America as well as across Europe . And in addition there were on-line presentations from India and Africa .
So, there were presentations addressing topics from many perspectives, viewpoints and the many countries of origin. You would have had to be there to appreciate the sheer width and dept of content.
We finished with a specially created song on Suno to show our appreciation of all the effort by Papa Baba and team to make the event the total success which is was .
A key feature of an event with such flexibility is to trust that it will all work out in the in. I had that trust and it always worked out.
SIETAR Valencia España International Congress 2026 Across Difference, Old Questions and New Tools: Interculturality, AI, and Shared Futures
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Written by David Rigby © 2026 Smart Coaching & Training Ltd
