About Share Fair

In view of evolving needs in stakeholder countries, declining budgetary resources, and the global information society that is emerging, the opportunity and need for international organizations to "work together", particularly in the area of information and knowledge management, is prevalent now as never before. Bearing this in mind, the Rome-based agencies, Bioversity International, CGIAR ICT-KM programme, FAO, IFAD and WFP, jointly co-organize their first Knowledge “Share Fair” (2009) in order to enable their Staff to showcase, recreate and invent ways to share knowledge and improve access to it. This need came out from the realization that we all have something to share and we all have something to learn from each other. Also, we share best with those we know and trust. Not only that: we share best once we know what it is each of us wants to know.

The Share Fairs aim to be positively interactive events, providing the possibility for Staff to showcase their experiences in knowledge sharing and, at the same time, learning from each other. Various formats such as market stalls and booths, along with workshops and short presentation sessions aim to provide an ideal opportunity for lively discussions and getting to know people. The Fairs showcase approaches for synthesizing knowledge in a way that makes it readily useful for the next person or teams wanting to learn from previous experiences. Interestingly, knowledge sharing is more than just sharing; it is about "working together", "helping each other" and "collaboration". During the coached and facilitated sessions, there are opportunities to learn together how the key principles of sharing link to real life experiences and work.

Networking is at the heart of personal and inter-personal knowledge sharing and management. It is about people connecting with people, linking ideas and resources and applying solutions to their own work to achieve best impact. With this in mind, time for networking is quite deliberately built into the agenda through coffee breaks, poster sessions and video/online demonstrations.

Since the first Share Fair, several Fairs have been organized. More about each fair is available by clicking on the links below.

• Share Fair on Agricultural and Rural Development Knowledge in Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 18-21 October 2010
• FAO Climate Change Days Rome 21-23 June 2010
• Foire aux Savoirs, Afrique de l'Ouest, EMIG, Niamey, Niger 15 - 17 Juin 2010
• Share Fair Latin America and Caribbean at CIAT, Cali Colombia 25-27 May 2010

Several other events have also taken parts of the “Share Fair” methodology and adapted it to their events. This adoption is an example of the value seen by these organizers in adding interactive components to their events. The events done in affiliation with the Share Fair methodology are:

• World Forestry Week Share Fair, Rome, Italy, 26-28 September 2012
• Mobilizing Knowledge Networks for Development, Washington D. C., USA, 19-20 June, 2012
• Second UNDG Inter-Agency Knowledge Fair, Turin, Italy, 16-18 November 2010
• UNDG Inter-Agency Knowledge Fair, Vienna, Austria 28 - 30 September 2010
• 1st IAAH Consultation, Rome, Italy 22 - 24 June 2010
• ABDC-10, Guadalajara, Mexico1 - 4 March 2010