Since October 2002, NCDD has run five national conferences, over a dozen regional and local events and partnered with many more organizations to bring practitioners of dialogue and deliberation together to share knowledge, build communities and support the growth of our field.  Our conferences are extraordinary networking and learning events. We focus on providing opportunities to network with colleagues, learn about the latest innovations in dialogue, deliberation and public engagement, talk to our community’s leaders, and explore key challenges in our field together – all while using the highly collaborative tools we’ve been advocating for 10 years.

2013 will be no different, with several events already planned for the summer.  Below is a listing of just a few of the projects and programs we are planning or involved with…

NCDD Tufts Meetup:  A Speed Networking & Learning Event

Thursday, July 18, 2013 from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM at Tuft’s University in Medford, MA.

Join us for a fun afternoon meetup before this year’s Frontiers of Democracy conference! We’ll do some “speed networking,” spend time in small groups learning about some of the region’s most exciting dialogue and deliberation projects, and talk some about what is and can be done to build civic infrastructure in the region. Coffee and snacks will be provided.

We’re encouraging NCDD members (and potential members) from across New England to come together for the event, whether or not you’re staying for the Frontiers conference. NCDDers coming in from outside New England for Frontiers are strongly encouraged to attend as well.

Frontiers of Democracy is sponsored by the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University, the Democracy Imperative, and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium. Between 125 and 150 people attend this conference each year – including many leading deliberative democracy scholars and practitioners.

Registration for the NCDD meetup is just $25, and you can register today at the link below.

Register here:  www.ncdd-tufts-meetup.eventbrite.com

Kettering Foundation’s 2013 Public Voice Event

June 2013 in Washington DC

NCDD was proud to help the Kettering Foundation identify a couple dozen leaders from the dialogue and deliberation community to be invited to attend this year’s annual Public Voice event at the National Press Club – both as featured roundtable participants and as observers.  The over-all program is being organized by the Kettering Foundation and participation is by invitation-only.

Members of the NCDD community who are in attendance will be gathering for an NCDD-Hosted Meeting after lunch where we’ll network, reflect on the morning’s discussion between deliberative democracy leaders and policymakers, and get a better sense of each other’s strengths, current projects, needs, and capacity as we discuss how we can become more of a united force.  We are encouraging those attending the NCDD Meeting to post and tweet to their communities about this portion of the day.

2013 “Confab Call” Series

NCDD’s “Confab calls” are opportunities for members of the NCDD community to connect with each other, hear about exciting projects in our field, and explore our field’s most pressing challenges. All NCDD members and potential members are welcome to participate in these calls. Our confabs are held on a monthly basis (when we’re good with it!), and feature some of our community’s most exciting leaders, projects and topics. Check out the confab archives to access audio recordings and archives of the collaborative docs participants have worked on for all our past confabs!

Latest calls:

April 2013 – Responding to Newtown - www.ncdd.org/11287

May 2013 – Red-Blue Dialogue  -  www.ncdd.org/11540

New “Tech Tuesdays” Series

Launching this July, Tech Tuesday is a new initiative from NCDD focused on online technology. Many in our field are curious about how they can use online tools to support their engagement work, and many tool creators are excited to talk to this community about their innovations.

Debut Tech Tuesday on July 16th!

We’ll be holding our very first Tech Tuesday event at 3pm Eastern on Tuesday, July 16th, focusing a cool engagement tool called “WeJIT“. Other Tech Tuesday webinars and screen-sharing events will take place once a month or so, helping D&D practitioners get a better sense of the online engagement landscape and options available to them.  We’ll be announcing more on the NCDD blog soon!