METAPHORUM CONFERENCE

A 100 Years of Stafford Beer - Celebrating his Legacy and Future Developments

September the 17th to the 19th, 2026

In 2026, Metaphorum is inviting you to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Stafford Beer at its conference, hosted at the University of Manchester Business School (AMBS) on September 17th-19th.

More than fifty years after his invention of the Viable System Model and Team Syntegrity, Beer's work remains urgently relevant as organisations and societies confront escalating complexity, ecological limits, technological disruption and crises of governance. 

Join the global cyber-systemic community in celebrating 100 years of Stafford Beer. We are organising the conference in collaboration with the World Organization for Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC) and the Centre for Systems Studies (University of Hull). There will be parallel events throughout this year in other partner organisations (ASC, ISSS).

This landmark conference explores his legacy and the future of organisational cybernetics through themes including pioneered creative artefacts to continue disseminating his legacy; emerging methods and tools; contemporary practice; resilient, just, and ethical organisations; grounded cybernetics, and global governance.

This will be a living, participatory conversation for scholars, practitioners and emerging voices shaping the next chapter of viable, ethical, and regenerative systems.

Registrations are open! Please register at the conference website (https://conference2026.metaphorum.org).

Deadline for abstracts: 17th July, 2026

At the conference we will be:

• Screening of a video documentary celebrating 'the visionary who fused science, art and spirit to reimagine society. 

• Launching of the "100 Years of Stafford Beer - Festschrift"  an online book - with a summary of Stafford's main contributions and of key developments of his theories in the last decades.  Edited by Angela Espinosa, Markus Schwaninger and Jose Perez Rios. Invited authors are  expected to participate in the conference, to discuss their work.

We invite scholars, practitioners, consultants and emerging voices to join us in shaping the next chapter of organisational cybernetics.

Those interested in publishing their work will be offered the option of participating in a special issue of one of the systems and cybernetic journals (details to be confirmed).

Pre-Centennial Events

• Special Stream at ISSS 2026:  ‘Elevating Systems Sciences to address humanity biggest challenges’, on June 22-26, 2026, Cyprus. (theme to be confirmed, led by Allenna Leonard)

• Special Stream at ASC (American Society of Cybernetics): 'Viable Confluences: 100 Years of Stafford Beer in Conversation with Latin America', led by Juliana Alves, at the ASC annual meeting in Brazil (2-7 August 2026).

Other centennial events will be announced soon at the conference webpage.

Metaphorum Webinar

Cybernetics-Systemics for the 21st Century: Explaining – Educating – Engaging. By William J. Reckmeyer, PhD. 4th March 2026, 5:00-6:30 pm (GMT)

Expectations about the rosy future of humanity in the 21^st century have changed profoundly in the past 50 years, starting with the publication of Limits to Growth and then amplified by a grow-ing awareness that we are now living in a new epoch – the Anthropocene.  Humanity’s increasing cybernetic capabilities and activities have generated significant improvements in living conditions for people around the world in a relatively short period of time, but they have also precipitated a runaway combination of challenges that are jeopardizing the systemic well-being of our species and the planet as whole.  In this session, I will explore some of the critical lessons that I’ve learned during my career about the value of cybernetics-systemics for helping people individually and collectively address these challenges more effectively and responsibly.  The session will include three key sub-topics: suggesting ways we can improve our ability to Explain the transdisciplinary benefits of the field to specialized audiences; ways we can enhance our ability to Educate people so they can apply the field’s knowledge and skills to their own needs and interests; and ways we can amplify our ability to Engage critical issues more integratively and collaboratively.  Although the session will not focus on Stafford Beer’s work, I am planning to weave in relevant connections to it with selected topics (especially human agency and viability) and probably a story or two from my interactions with him over the years to help ground the conversation.

Bio

Bill is Professor of Cybernetics & Systemics in the new School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University, where he is providing strategic support for reimagining cybernetics in the 21st Century and establishing SoCy as an innovative center for helping people learn how to navigate and shape major societal transformations.  Prior to joining ANU in 2022, he spent his 50-year career as a professor and practitioner based at San José State University in Silicon Valley where his work focused on developing and applying cybernetic-systemic approaches to address complex organizational, community, national, and global issues.  His current work is focusing on a major research project about Homo Cyberneticus: Creating, Understanding, and Managing the Anthropocene, which examines the science, history, and impact of humanity’s rapidly-evolving cyberneticity over the past 500 years and its implications for our collective future.  ASC Life Fellow and former President of the American Society for Cybernetics; IASCYS Fellow and current President of the International Academy for the Systems & Cybernetic Sciences; and recipient of the Norbert Wiener Gold Medal for his lifetime achievements and contributions in the field.

To register, please visit the Metaphorum Upcoming Webinars webpage, and click 'Participate' at this webinar. Ticket Tailor will send you a link to the webinar, once you register. 

Looking forward to seeing you next week at Bill's webinar.