We’ll be putting a call out soon for workshop presenters for NCDD Seattle (October 12-14), and I’d love to get some NCDDers’ help thinking about what makes a great workshop.  Your comments and ideas will help the conference team with the selection process, and will help session leaders start thinking about how best to frame and organize their workshops. Below are examples of just a few of the workshops we offered at the 2008 NCDD conference in Austin (our last national conference, since we hold ... (continue)

Plans are underway for NCDD’s 5th National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation, to be held October 12-14, 2012 at the Hyatt at Olive 8 in downtown Seattle, Washington.  NCDD conferences bring together hundreds of the most active, thoughtful, and influential people involved in public engagement and group process work across the U.S. and Canada (and even some from outside North America!). Consider supporting this important convening by becoming an All-Star Sponsor, Co-Sponsor or Partner of NCDD Seattle.  By supporting an NCDD conference, our sponsors are ... (continue)

NCDD Board chair Marla Crockett posted this request on the NCDD Discussion list today. We’re looking to learn about your current aspirations for your work in dialogue and deliberation, and use what you share to design this year’s National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation. Feel free to reply via email to Marla or the listserv, or post your responses to the three questions using the comment field here on the NCDD Community blog. Hi, Everyone—We hope you’ve heard the exciting news that NCDD will hold its ... (continue)

We’re excited to announce that NCDD is holding its 2012 national conference in Seattle, Washington!  We’ll be coming together October 12-14 (Friday through Sunday) for the 5th National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation at the Hyatt at Olive 8 in hipster-approved downtown Seattle. Registration, presenter opportunities, sponsorship details, planning survey, and other info will be posted soon at www.ncdd.org/events.  For now, be sure to hold these dates on your calendar! To stay up-to-date on NCDD Seattle news and opportunities, email me or joy@ncdd.org with your specific interests/ideas, ... (continue)

Join us in New York City this March 30th and 31st for the International Conference on Participatory Budgeting in the US and Canada. NCDD is a proud co-sponsor of this event, and we hope to see you there.  Let me (Sandy) know if you plan to attend, so we can be sure to meet up!  Registration is a sliding scale between just $10 and $50 — but register soon because space is limited.  Learn more at www.pbconference.wordpress.com. Here’s the full announcement… International Conference:  Participatory Budgeting in the US ... (continue)

It looks like NCDD will be a proud co-sponsor of the first International Conference on Participatory Budgeting in the US and Canada, which will take place March 30-31, 2012, in New York City!  We’re happy to play a role in supporting this event, as participatory budgeting is one of the fastest-growing forms of public engagement in the U.S., and we’d like to see more NCDD members stepping into this work. I heard from Josh Lerner yesterday that workshop slots are filling up quite fast, so ... (continue)

Several months ago, there was a call for more discussion about diversity, race, and inclusion in our field. Using the NCDD discussion list, I put out a call for people who would be interested in pursuing this topic further, and we had a good number of people sign up. Three small groups, each with six NCDD members, will meet one day per week via phone over the next three weeks (7-8pm EDT July 13, 20, 27). I wanted to give readers of the blog one ... (continue)

I’m excited to share that some NCDDers in Hartford, Connecticut have shown interest in holding a regional NCDD event or local meet-up this fall. I’ve set up a quick 7-question survey to gauge people’s interest in such an event, and if you’re based in New England I encourage you to take a minute to respond. Everyday Democracy is interested in serving as our local host for the event, and helping us to identify a venue! First, we need to get a sense of how many ... (continue)

I sent this message out today via Eventbrite to all 165+ attendees of our regional NCDD event in Austin on November 5th, titled “From Chaos to Collaboration: Raising the Bar in Public Engagement.” Since there are so many great resources in the Central TX team’s report on the event, I thought I’d post this on the blog as well. 1. Download the Central TX team’s wonderful report on the workshop at http://ncdd.org/files/NCDD2010Austin.pdf.  The report summarizes the day (including poll results, highlights from panels, etc.), includes ... (continue)

After catching our breath from this fall’s wonderful events, we here at NCDD central have settled into the task of collecting media and materials from all the conferences. We’re especially looking for anecdotes from participants (share yours with me at andy@ncdd.org). Once again we were so pleased with the quality and variety of experiences our community brought to the table, but we also realize that, at the end of the day, it’s the networking opportunities that are often most prized by our participants and we’re ... (continue)