Sandy and I sat down last week and went over all the things that we would like to see happen technology-wise leading up to and during the next conference. What we put together is a wish list… some things should be easy to implement, while other things will take dedicated volunteers to make happen. By clicking on the more link below, you will find the notes from that conversation which I’ve expanded with my ow thoughts. If you are interested in technology, regardless of your level of experience, I would really appreciate it if you looked over these notes to see if there are any projects you might be interested in getting involved with. I would also love it if you could add (or respond to) any questions, comments or other feedback in this post’s comments. Thanks!

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8/7/08 update to this post:  The great folks at Moo are offering all NCDD Austin attendees 10% off up to three sets of Moo MiniCards. Just use the discount code 78DEYK at checkout to save a couple bucks on each pack.

One thing that’s great about NCDD conferences is the feeling you get when you make new connections you know you’ll have for a long time, or when you put faces to the names of people you’ve read about or connected with via NCDD’s listservs or website. But you meet so many people at the conferences that those faces can start to blur even before the event is over!

Ever since I ordered my first set of Moo MiniCards, with images of our first three conferences on them, I’ve been dreaming about how cool it would be if we asked every participant at our 2008 conference to order Moo cards for themselves (yes, I dream about such things). Moo cards are just $20 for 100 full-color cards, and if we can encourage people to upload pictures of themselves for their cards, it will undoubtedly help us remember who we connected with in Austin.

I take my Moo cards with me to every event I attend now, and people’s reactions are always the same: “What a great idea!” “These are the coolest cards I’ve ever seen.” “How can I get some of these?” Well, you order them from Moo.com. They ship from the U.K., but shipping to the states is only about $5. I recommend uploading about 5 to 10 pictures – although you can upload 100 different photos if you want. And I recommend brightening your photos up a bit before uploading them.

Oh – and you can always get Moo cards printed to advertise your workshop (we’re getting some to advertise the conference), a new book, or whatever.

Feel free to add a comment to let me know what you think of Moo cards and the idea of encouraging all conference participants to bring Moo cards with them with their face shots on them. Any ideas you have about HOW to encourage all of our participants to do this would be more than welcome as well!

All members of the 2008 conference planning team were asked, if possible, to participate in one of two introductory conference calls. The calls took place on January 17th and 21st, and a total of 41 people participated in the two calls. The calls allowed me to talk to everyone about how NCDD conferences are different from typical conferences and to share some of things I think will make NCDD 2008 our best event yet. They also allowed planning team members to hear each other’s voices and learn a bit about what each other does and what their hopes are for the event.

Both calls went surprisingly well for such large calls, and it was wonderful to start hearing people’s ideas and hopes for the Austin conference. Below are some notes I prepared for my segment of the call, and I’d appreciate it if all planning team members who couldn’t make it on one of the calls (or who just joined us!) could take a few minutes to look this over.

We also have PDFs of the notes for each call, and these focus on what team members had to say during their introductions and during some brainstorming/Q&A time, so please look these over as well.

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Windy Lawrence, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Houston – Downtown (and member of the conference planning team) asked me to post the following request to the conference blog. She invites everyone in the D&D community to share their ideas using the comments feature.

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I’m helping to research innovative networking session strategies for the upcoming NCDD conference and I could really use your input.

Sandy mentioned to me that in the past, NCDD has tried different things to help conference participants network – using methods like Open Space (pictured) and World Cafe to help people meet each other, having people self-organize topics during receptions so people can identify others who share their interests, etc. But, as always, we’re looking for innovative new ways to foster quality networking and relationship building at the next NCDD conference – and we’re especially interested in ideas that work well for introverts as well as extroverts.

Beyond the traditional networking that goes on at conferences (time between sessions, meals, etc.), we’d love it if you could tell us about:

• a networking activity or strategy you’ve experienced that was particularly innovative or effective
• people or organizations you think we should talk to about this, or resources you’re aware of that could help us
• any ideas you have about innovative networking activities we should consider for NCDD 2008

Please post your ideas and feedback here, or email it directly to me at LawrenceW@uhd.edu. I will be keeping track of all of the input I receive here.

Thanks!!

Windy

Windy Y. Lawrence, Ph.D.
Department of Arts & Humanities
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies
University of Houston – Downtown
1 Main Street #S1009-C
Houston, Texas 77002
713-221-8472

I sent an email out to the Planning Team listserv last Thursday (January 10th) about the two introductory conference calls we’re having for the entire team. I thought I’d post something in the conference blog as well. We’ve put together a great planning team, and it’s time to jump-start the planning process.

The calls are scheduled at times that should allow even our international team members to make one of the calls. The calls will be held:

- Thursday, January 17, at 11 am Eastern / 10 am Central / 8 am Pacific
- Monday, January 21, at 7 pm Eastern / 6 pm Central / 4 pm Pacific

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Interested in contributing your knowledge, time and talents to help ensure that NCDD’s 2008 conference in Austin is our best event yet? We’d love to have you on the Planning Team!

NCDD’s biennial conferences are unique experiments in collaborative planning, and we have managed dynamic planning teams of about 60 people for each of our three previous conferences. Potential planning team members should complete this short survey asap so we can find out what you’re interested in doing.

You can also look over an outline of our general planning process below.

Planning process for the 2008 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation

Conference Director: Sandy Heierbacher (secures funding, galvanizes involvement and support from community, manages budget, provides overall direction, ensures continuity, supports Core Team, etc.)

Conference Manager: TDB (facilitates core team calls, manages new volunteers, checks in with team facilitators, serves as go-to person at the conference for design issues)

Core Team: Sandy, conference manager, and facilitators of the following teams (responsible for overall theme and direction of the conference and for ensuring that all teams remain in communication and collaborate when appropriate)

Design Team: leader TBD (responsible for designing the plenary sessions and ensuring they flow from one to the next meaningfully; deciding which workshops are selected; coordinating any small-group dialogues we have; coordinating “listeners” or another means of handling issues/conflicts/concerns; coordinating a dynamic arts component; and coordinating networking opportunities)

Central Texas Team: led by Diane Miller (responsible for ensuring that D&D programs and innovations in/around Austin are highlighted meaningfully at the conference; determining how Austin can benefit from the conference coming to the city; overseeing local PR and outreach efforts; handling Austin-specific logistics like homestays, entertainment, and a list of local restaurants).

Tech Team: leader TBD (responsible for coordinating the use of online tools to help people connect before and after the conference; blogging on the NCDD 2008 blog before and during the conference; ensuring that photos, video, and audio are handled well at and after the conference; overseeing internet access at the venue; coordinating a workshop on technology and D&D)

Logistics Team: led by Polly Riddims (responsible for venue logistics, coordinating a conference bookstore, improving the atmosphere at the conference with decorations, flowers, etc., coordinating evening activities and options, creating a list of local restaurants and map to show people where they are, identifying where people can make copies, send packages, etc.)

The 2008 NCDD “Planning Team” consists of everyone serving in any of the above teams or positions.

What happens when I join the Planning Team?

All members of the planning team for the 2008 conference will be subscribed to a main discussion list for the whole team. We will also add you to a planning team group on NCDD’s Members Network so some of your conversations can happen in a place where all NCDD members can observe and even contribute when asked. If you are not already a member of NCDD, we will add you as a member so you can access this Members Network (don’t worry – the membership fee is optional).

You may be asked to serve on one of the sub-teams (Central Texas, Design, Tech, Logistics) depending on what you expressed an interest in doing. You would be subscribed to a discussion list and added to a group for that team as well.

Your team’s facilitator will use the discussion list and group to explore issues, generate ideas, and get a sense of how their team feels about different options. They may also ask you to participate in periodic conference calls (or face-to-face meetings, if you are part of the Central Texas Team). If you are part of the Design Team or the Central Texas Team, both of which will be quite large, fewer calls/meetings will involve your entire team.

Planning team members will also be asked to visit NCDD’s Events blog regularly so they can see what’s happening, add comments on various ideas and issues, and look over input from the greater NCDD community. Let us know if you are interested in blogging (adding your own blog posts rather than just adding comments to existing posts) about your area of the planning process, and we’ll set you up on the blog.

If you are not-so-comfortable with web technology, hopefully this process will help you to see the value in it and help you to become more comfortable. Planning team members will be from all across the country – and from outside of the U.S. as well, so it is necessary for us to communicate primarily via email and the web. If you find that you need help or advise with anything technology-oriented, we strongly encourage you to email Andy Fluke, NCDD’s Creative Director, at andy@thataway.org.

During the plenary sessions at the 2002, 2004 and 2006 National Conferences on Dialogue & Deliberation, we’ve showcased a number of great large-group D&D methods. We’ve used these methods to help reach our goals for the conference – helping participants incorporate their learning, network with one another, set priorities, shape the future of the D&D community, etc. Sometimes we stayed fairly pure with the process, and other times we adapted them in major ways to better suit our needs.

We have experimented with these methodologies at NCDD conferences so far:

• 21st Century Town Meeting (high-tech in 2002, low-tech in 2006)
• Conversation Cafe (2004)
• Future Search (2006)
• Inquiry Circle/Reflective Panel (2004 and 2006)
• Intergroup Dialogue (2002)
• Open Space (2006) and Birds of a Feather (2004)
• Playback Theatre (2004)
• Study Circles’ Action Forum (2002)
• World Cafe (2004)

Although we don’t want to commit to methods before we develop our theme and goals for the Austin conference, people are always suggesting methods that we should use – some of which we haven’t experimented with before. One of the things I’d like to do with the planning team this year is to host a series of conference calls featuring “guest speakers” who represent innovative methods we might want to consider using. This way, planning team members can benefit from a unique educational opportunity while we work on conference content AND strengthen NCDD’s relationship with some leaders in the field.

So far, the following methods and leaders have emerged as possibilities…

• Appreciative Inquiry (? – anyone know who would be a good spokesperson for AI?)
• Deliberative Polling (Jim Fishkin)
• Polarity Management (Barry Johnson)
• Wisdom Council (Jim Rough)

What other methods do people think we should consider using during our plenary sessions – and holding informative conference calls on?

Susan Clark and Jacob Hess are working to make the Austin conference more balanced in terms of political ideology. They are also looking for ways to facilitate and highlight liberal-conservative dialogue at the conference. Given our (not great) track record for attracting conservatives to past conferences, we are asking the greater D&D community to help us think of new ways to involve and identify conservatives who are committed to public engagement and conflict transformation.

Here are some of Susan and Jacob’s ideas…

• Identify and make visible dialogue projects that include conservative leadership – and/or explicit bi-partisan leadership.
• Plan a plenary session at the conference that provides a forum to address increasing polarization in the media and the need for dialogue between people with traditionally “liberal” and “conservatives” views.
• Identify and reach out to specific conservatives who are or could be interested in the work of NCDD.

One workshop idea is to use evaluation findings from the liberal/conservative dialogue course at the University of Illinois as a stepping off point for a discussion of how to “frame” dialogue in a way that avoids inadvertent cues that would turn off conservatives. And we thought you might enjoy reading this student’s quote about the class:

“Before this class, I went through the logic of conservatives and would think, “They have to be crazy!” From this experience, it’s great to know half of the world is not nuts. You don’t get this on TV—they’re goofy on both sides there. But from this class, I better understand now the conservative logic; I may not agree, but it makes more sense.”

Please share your suggestions on specific projects to highlight (in workshops, or as something to receive an NCDD award) and/or practitioners or community leaders who should be invited to the conference. We’d especially like to know aout dialogue projects that have conservative leadership – and/or explicit bi-partisan leadership. Plus we welcome any other suggestions you have on this issue.

Here are some of the typical elements of NCDD conferences:

• The general theme or purpose of NCDD conferences is to unite and strengthen the growing dialogue and deliberation community
• At least one highly participatory plenary (large-group) session each day; the plenaries model dialogue and deliberation techniques while helping conference participants think about where the field should be going and/or tackle key issues facing the field
• At least one of the plenary sessions allows participants to hear from several key leaders in the field (not a keynote, by any means, but a much more dialogic, participatory format)
• 5 or 6 timeslots in which people can choose between approximately 10 workshops
• 50 or more 2-hour workshops offered throughout the conference, led by leaders and innovators in the field; workshops are generally very participatory – not just dry panel presentations in smaller rooms!
• A dynamic arts component, through which arts that stimulate dialogue are featured and the arts are used to help participants process their experience
• An afternoon of Open Space, during which participants self-organize dozens of discussions (we did this in both 2004 and 2006)
• 30 minute breaks between sessions so participants don’t feel rushed and have extra time for informal networking

Progressives seem to “get” dialogue and deliberation more than conservatives do, and our conference participants definitely tend to lean to the left. We want make NCDD a more welcoming network/conference for conservatives not only because their perspectives will make our gatherings richer, but also because we need to learn how to appeal to more people if D&D are ever to spread to the mainstream.

Conference planning team members Susan Clark and Jacob Hess have taken on this challenge, and here are some notes from their first conversation on December 28, 2007…

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