Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/18947

JaLCDOI : 10.14943/17542

KEYWORDS : consensus conference;citizen's panel;facilitator;facilitation;workshop

Consensus Conference is a type of meeting that makes it possible to include ordinar y people and their experiences in technology assessment. It gives people the opportunity to assess a given technological development and make up their minds about its possibilities and consequences. A citizen's panel, representative of ordinary people with divergent background, has a discussion after having taken information from experts about the technology. Having deepened discussion each other, a citizen's panel completes a final document which contains a clarification and a position of issue. To promote discussion smoothly, a facilitator and staff members of a conference office have to work out the design of conference in detail. The author of this report took part in the Consensus Conference on Genetically Modified Organism held in Hokkaido as a staff member. This is a report that summarized what the staff members of consensus conference can prepare to make citizen's panel feel comfortable and to promote discussion smoothly. The points that should be considered are as follows: ice breaking, communication size, design of a meeting place, open/closed choice of meeting, support of making sentences, and break time.