Early bird registration for the annual CCI/ACMO Condominium Conference ends this Friday, September 30, 2011. Act fast to get preferred pricing for the 15th edition of this country’s preeminent condominium event.

The theme of this year’s conference, to be held November 4-5 in Toronto, is “Living in Balance: Corporation & Community.”

In the weeks leading up to the conference, work continues on putting together over a dozen educational sessions covering a spectacular array of issues that confront condominium corporations each day. Even as we speak, your faithful scribe is preparing to moderate one of those sessions, described as follows:

Condo Mediation – Unravelling the Mystery

Is mediation a waste of time or is it a critical tool for solving disputes in your community? Decide for yourself after engaging our interactive panel, sharing your views, hearing others’ experiences and learning about:

*  Mediation explained;
*  When mediation can be used;
*  Pros and cons; and
*  Reaching better settlements.

Joining me to answer these and other pertinent questions about are condo mediators Colm Brannigan, Jennifer Bell and Marko Djurdjevac. Our goal is to deliver a whirlwind program offering non-legalistic commentary on what seems like a mysterious process that is often tossed aside in the rush to get into court and vanquish the opposing side.

Before we finalize the program, we’re interested to hear whether we can help address questions on your mind. Consider, for instance:

  • What specifically would you like to hear about on the topic of condo mediation?
  • If you haven’t participated in mediation before, what would you need to know before deciding to mediate a case?
  • Do you think that some types of cases better lend themselves to mediation than others?
  • What role do your lawyers play in selecting the process for resolving disputes?

For those of you who have participated in condo mediation before:

  • What would you tell a fellow property manager or condo director to help them navigate their own mediation case?
  • What have you learned about mediation that didn’t come from your lawyers?
  • Was there a part of the process that you didn’t understand?
  • What is one thing you wished you knew about mediation before walking into the room?

Your ideas, questions and comments will help us deliver a snappier, sharper session that will give you a better grip of this often-misunderstood topic and, with luck, another tool to help solve disputes in your condo community.  Feel free to post your response as a comment to this blog entry or email them to me.

Thanks in advance for your input, and be sure to register to attend our session at the condo conference!