Last week, Pangea held a three-day, two-night retreat from Saturday until Monday. Twenty-five facilitators, technology staff, advisors, and board members from Tokyo, Kyoto, and Mie attended. Attendees praised the retreat, calling it "exceptionally productive" and finding it "so stimulating that ideas continued to be generated even after the retreat ended." Although I initially thought we could spend some time getting to know each other, participants got down to business immediately, turning the retreat into a forum to share their ideas about the present, future, content, and framework of Pangaea. Three lecture series were presented to work groups: Kazuhiko Nishi analyzed Pangaea's operations, Toru Ishida spoke on the language grid that powers the multilingual communicate site used weekly, and board member Toshio Nagahisa presented multiple perspectives on the future of Japan.

The discussions continued until after 10 PM, and the number of questions from participants startled even the speakers. We also tested animation software developed in Kyoto, built personal connections, considered thoroughly future content of our community site, and shared our daily concerns about Pangaea. It turned out to be a very fruitful retreat. If possible, I would like to have a retreat very much like this one every year. I was surprised and excited by the brilliance of our participants and felt we were truly creating "everyone's Pangaea." Thank you dearly to those who participated. For those who did not, we welcome you to future retreats.

Yumi