Join us for a free webinar titled “Emerging Opportunities and Challenges in Dialogue & Deliberation: What Are the Implications for Practice?” on Friday, May 14 from 1pm to 2:30 Eastern (10am Pacific) with NCDD members Caroline Lee and Francesca Polletta. The webinar is jointly sponsored by the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) and PublicDecisions.

The field of public dialogue and deliberation (D&D) is growing dramatically—so dramatically, in fact, that no one fully knows what the field looks like: who is doing public dialogue and deliberation work, what forms their work is taking, what common challenges they face. This webinar will use the results of a recent survey of dialogue and deliberation practitioners as a jumping off point for a wide-ranging discussion of current and future issues in the public engagement practitioner community.

We’ll discuss results that shed light on topics such as how people get started in D&D practice, the role of gender in deliberation, and how best to measure and market D&D outcomes. In this interactive program, webinar participants will be invited to identify the emerging challenges they see and to share steps they are taking to chart the course of 21st Century public engagement. Come prepared to engage and be engaged!

Caroline Lee and Francesca Polletta, the sociologists who conducted the survey, will join hosts Sandy Heierbacher of NCDD and Beth Offenbacker of PublicDecisions in a highly interactive, dynamic discussion that will delve into tough issues and exciting possibilities.

Register by the end of the day on Wednesday, May 12th at http://www.publicdecisions.com/publicforum_2010May14.html . This webinar uses Microsoft Live Meeting, an online meeting platform. You will click on a unique weblink we send you to view the slides, etc., and you can either plug in a computer headset or call a U.S. telephone line (long distance charges apply, but you can always use Skype) to hear/speak.

I encourage you also to check out the survey results before the webinar at http://sites.lafayette.edu/ddps/.

About Our Speakers

Caroline Lee is an assistant professor of sociology in the Anthropology & Sociology Department at Lafayette College, Easton, PA. She received an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology at the University of California, San Diego. Her research explores public participation, deliberative democracy, and regional governance. She is currently working on projects on public engagement professionals and the democratic potential of new technologies.

Francesca Polletta is professor of sociology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. She works in the areas of culture, politics, social movements, and law. She is the author of two award-winning books: Freedom Is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social Movements (2002) and It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics (2006). Polletta¹s current research, on public involvement in rebuilding the World Trade Center site after 9/11, is aimed both at assessing contemporary theories of deliberative democracy in the context of a high-stakes development process and tracing how new modes of citizen participation are reshaping traditional structures of urban policy and protest.

About PublicDecisions & NCDD

PublicDecisions is the premiere provider of online, “live” training, professional development events and conferences on stakeholder engagement. Our international registrants include professionals in the planning, transportation and environmental sectors; community health workers and other health professionals; school administrators, librarians and nonprofit/NGO leaders. PublicDecisions programs – such as our PublicForum book talks and webinars – feature state-of-the-art best practices and leading-edge ideas for successfully engaging stakeholders today.

The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) is an active network of over 1,200 groups and professionals who bring people of all stripes together to discuss, decide and collaborate on today’s toughest issues. Formed in 2002 after the first National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation, NCDD is a U.S.-based organization with international members and affiliations, all of whom are dedicated to expanding the capacity of people with divergent views from all walks of life to engage in honest dialogue and quality deliberation. Through our projects, online forums and events, NCDD connects professional and grassroots practitioners, academic researchers, businesses, government officials, activists, artists, students and technologists drawn from a wide range of sectors and practices.