Proposals for pre-conference trainings are due TOMORROW (Friday, February 27th) by noon GMT for the 17th Annual IAP2 conference in San Diego, California this September 21st through 23rd. Facilitators of pre-conference trainings set their own participant fees for their trainings.

The theme for this year’s International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) conference is Making Sustainable Decisions: The Price and Promise of Public Participation. As a Conference Partner, NCDD is playing a major role in the San Diego conference and we hope to have a large NCDD contingent there. NCDD members will pay a discounted registration fee for the conference, and we will hold at least one NCDD gathering and/or workshop at the event.

IAP2 wants to expand the definition of sustainability to encompass all the characteristics that make decision-making processes and the resulting decisions sustainable. Specifically, we are looking for presentations focused around the following themes:

1. Sustainable decision-making processes: what characteristics are necessary for a public participation process to be sustainable?
2. Sustainable decisions: In what ways does public participation lead to decisions that are more workable and enduring than those made without public participation?
3. Sustainable outcomes: How do public participation processes and better decisions specifically contribute to the sustainability of projects and programs?

We believe now is the time to embed in decision-making sustainable processes that will lead to sustainable outcomes. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego to explore and advance our understanding of how to make better, stronger, durable decisions that improve our quality of life and leave a better world in place for future generations.

Visit www.thataway.org/?page_id=1419 or iap2.org for more details about the event.