Warm Data Theory & Practice Training
Portland, Oregon, USA
September 13-20, 2026
This training is challenging. It is a rich blend of theory and practice, both of which are essential. It is an arc of deep steeping in the theoretical underpinnings of the Warm Data Lab & People Need People (Online) practices.
When: September 13-20, 2026
The training will take place from 10:00 to 17:30 each day.
Where:
237 NE Broadway, Suite 300, Portland OR 97232
Course Fee:
$2950 (USD) - Organizational / Supporter rate — The additional funds will allow us to offer more places at the Low Wage / Low Resource price point
$2450 (USD) - Individual / Non-profit Organizational rate
$1450 (USD) - Low Wage / Low Resource rate
EXTRA PUBLIC EVENING EVENTS: There will be two public evening events on Wednesday (16th) and Friday (18th). Venue and time will be announced soon.
How to Apply:
If you have any questions about the course or the application process, please email us at training@warmdata.life before you apply. Due to the volume of applications, please do not use the application form to ask us any questions.
Applying at the Organizational/Supporter Rate or the Individual/Non-Profit Rate:
When you are ready to apply, please fill out the application form below. Please take the time you need to fill out the application. Expect an email from us regarding your application within 4-7 days of submitting your application form to either confirm your place and send you the payment instructions or to follow up with any questions we may have.
How to Pay
We accept payments by credit/debit card and Apple Pay. Payment is due upon confirmation of your successful application, and there is a 30-day grace period. Your place is not confirmed until the course fee is paid, and after 30 days, you will be moved to a waiting list.
If you are unable to make the payment within 30 days, please email us before you apply. We will always try to accommodate your payment needs.
Applying for a Low-Wage/Low-Resource Place:
The International Bateson Institute is a not-for-profit organization, so there is limited abundance, and everything we have is being paid forward. As a general rule, we don’t profit from Warm Data Labs or People Need People sessions. Donations and grants cover all of our operational expenses and public-facing work.
We sincerely appreciate everyone who chooses to join our course. The payment system is designed to balance economic accessibility, with those with greater financial resources helping to support those with less.
We hope that you'll consider your own position within this global economic framework and contribute accordingly.
If you would like to apply for one of these low-wage/Low-Resource places, please fill out the application form. We will contact you 4-7 days after we receive your form to confirm we have received your application, let you know if we have any questions, and let you know whether we can offer you a place immediately or will be placing you on a waiting list.
As part of your application process, we will ask you questions about how long you will need to pay the course fee. We understand that if you are applying at this price point, it may also mean there are needs around when to pay the course fee, and we are happy to work with you to make the payment affordable and viable.
We cannot always offer as many places as we get applications for, and we will try to accommodate as many applications as possible.
Please note we are not able to offer any further reductions on the course fee at this time.
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Now more than ever our lives are divided and polarized.
The possibilities for people to respond to events of this era depend upon their ability to improvise and learn together within their complexity. One way to tend to this ability to commune is through the Warm Data Practice.
Too often, attempts to solve these complex issues are unwittingly perpetuating the very same problems. The quest for solutions, despite our best intentions, is inherently informed by the same patterns of thought that are creating the illusions of separation.
This course offers a deep dive into the Warm Data theory and practice toward a shift in perception. Through storytelling, archival documents, poetry, multitudes of texts spanning from ancient wisdom to modern complexity theory, a multiple description of the movement, rhythm, and resonances of life comes into study. This is both a felt sensorial inquiry and one of intellectual rigor.
Diving deeply into Warm Data practices, we are more likely to perceive the possibilities of ‘readying’ for change to meet the brokenness of the existing structures and systems. Possible actions are shifted with a change in perception.
Whatever your occupation, whatever you do in life, whoever you are, engaging with Warm Data practices offers the possibility of acting, feeling, thinking, and knowing differently.
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There are two warm data practices made for today’s fragmented world — Warm Data Labs and People Need People (Online).
The Warm Data Lab is created to help release and revitalize sensitivity to the sacred processes of life that have been fragmented by the last several hundred years of history.
People Need People (Online) adapts this practice to offer uniquely rich and storied online communication, in contrast to the common experience of polarized and divisive digital communication patterns.
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Abductive Process (C.S. Peirce)
Aphanipoiesis (N. Bateson)
Differences of Abstraction (A. Korzybski / B. Russell)
Epistemological Frames (G. Bateson)
Complexity Theory
Conscious Purpose (G. Bateson)
Double Bind (G. Bateson)
Interdependency and Change in Complex Systems, Mind (G. Bateson)
Multiple Description (G. Bateson)
Nth Order Agency (Transcontextual Anticipation) (N. Bateson)
Patterns that Connect (G. Bateson)
Requisite Variety (R. Ashby)
Schismogenesis (G. Bateson)
Side-by-Siding (N. Bateson)
Simultaneously Implicating (N. Bateson)
Symmathesy (N. Bateson)
Transcontextual Process (G. Bateson)
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Joining an international Warm Data community network
Gaining access to an online Warm Data platform to share insights.
Meeting online monthly with other members of the Warm Data community from around the world for practice sessions, organizing projects, contributing and having an open invitation to attend regular theory booster session, reading salons on Bateson and other materials.
Completion of this course comes with an open invitation to join this course again and again, free of training fees (in-person trainings still have modest venue fees).
“Nora’s goal is to apply mutual learning in living systems to effective responses to economic injustice, inequality, and other challenges facing our modern world… [Warm data] is information about relationships... [The Warm Data Lab] avoids binary positions…”
If you have any questions or would like any more information, please reach out to us here: