It is coming to the end of 2023 and whilst I am busy putting together the training for next year, (details of which will come out in January,) I wanted to share with you the range of work that I have done this year. The reason for doing this is simple, I really want to highlight how everything we do is formed, in some part by story. I believe that if we become aware of this at a deep, conscious level we will be better able to work with story in a truly profound way.
So this year I have:
Worked with BookStart in Sweden, sharing knowledge about storytelling and language development in Early Years Education. I also ran a hands-on workshop making story-based language resources and supporting partcipants in developing their storytelling skills.
Delivered training and a keynote in Skellefteå for a conference on Storytelling as an Educational Tool. The centre is amazing - take a look here.
Delivered a keynote in Norway for educators based on creating powerful learning identities with their students within a digital world.
Ran my yearly training session with Trainee Early Years Educators at Högskola Väst. Once again focusing on story as a language development tool.
Worked with Settle Stories in the UK, filming and performing in a local school.
Delivered a keynote and workshop at a 'Reading Conference' for Liverpool Education Authority.
Was a guest of the Society of Authors for a digital workshop on 'The Stories We Tell Oursleves.'
Delivered a worskhop for educators in Lidköping on language development tools for pupils.
Ran a workshop for educators in Stockholm on changing the narrative of their school.
Once again worked with the wonderful WSLA - training international female sports leaders in owning their stories.
Became an associate consultant for the inspirational Förnyelselabbet.
Worked once more in Skellefteå, this time at the SKR Culture conference, leading a workshop with cultural and political leaders on Narrative and Future Visioning. Whilst there I also ran a day-long workshop for the Leaders of Social Services Department on the Organisational Narrative. (I have been invited back in 2024 to continue with this.)
Finished the year with a workshop for the employees of Humly that focused on developing a strong, shared, organisational narrative.
This was followed by a conference in the UK for educators working with children who have language delay and disorders, quickly followed by my biggest live audience event in Dublin. (The image is from the venue.) for the incredible CIS.
All in all I worked live with about 2000 people and then with a large number of people online too. In addition to the above I attended meetings, held online training sessions, kept on online prescence with monthly blogs and book recommendations plus made a lot of wonderful friends.
If you look at this, it is really not a lot of bookings and I need more. My feedback has been outstanding this year yet I need to create more work. If this is what people say about me, how can I do that?
"Katrice Horsley… What a find! Wonderful, a real force of nature and an inspiration."
"More from Katrice. She was incredible and I feel she had so much more to share"
"We’ve rarely had such wonderful feedback on the opening session and there were a couple of people who said to me that in their 10-20 years attending CIS Forums, they’d never seen such a powerful keynote. We will share participants’ feedback with you in due course, but I thought you should know the headlines now.
You’re a fantastic speaker who has a rare ability to combine incredibly compelling and relevant content with wonderful speaking/performance skills.
It was lovely to meet you, we will definitely keep you in mind for future events!"
I could go on but I will not - What I would love to know from all of you, who take time to read my posts is this - What would you like me to share more of? What would you like to develop that I might be able to help with?
I would love you to share your reflections with me. I was thinking about setting up a substack next year and creating an online community where all of us can share more of what we are doing and I can create webinars and workshops for all my members free of charge. That would be lovely I think......
Finally, I cannot share any words with you without mentioning the horrendous situation in Palestine. I want to wish you all a wonderful festive season and this year I know that as I celebrate with the people I love and care for, I will be very aware of how privileged and lucky I am to be safe. I have worked in Palestine and it was horrendous then as the wall was being built. I have my voice and not much else, I will use it as often as I can to put a stop to hate, war, conflict and genocide. I pray for a ceasefire.
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