Events, Programs and Conferences of NCDD
NOTE: The events section of the site is being updated. Most pages will be offline until Monday, November 26th. Links may not work properly until then. Sorry for the inconvenience.
NCDD runs high-energy, highly participatory events which bring together practitioners, scholars, public leaders, trainers, artists, activists, teachers, and students from across this critically important field. We have held three successful biennial national conferences so far, involving nearly 1,000 people from 18 different countries.In addition to our flagship conferences, we inspired the Canadian Conferences on Dialogue & Deliberation into being and helped launch several regional D&D conferences that have since formed ongoing networks. In order to help advance the rapidly-growing dialogue and deliberation community, we also regularly lend our support to events and projects run by our partners.
2008 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation
The 2008 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation will take place in Austin, Texas October 3-5, 2008, with some great pre-conference trainings on Thursday, October 2nd. The conference will be held at the Renaissance Austin Hotel, a beautiful hotel in the heart of picturesque Texas Hill Country. We’re excited to be having our next conference in Austin - a fantastic city with an active network of dialogue and deliberation practitioners. Austin is a hip and trendy city, yet in a vintage sort of way. Considered The Live Music Capital of The World, Austin is where cutting-edge technology resides with artists, musicians, and filmmakers. Learn more about the Austin conference.
Get Involved in NCDD 2008!
Are you interested in being part of the planning team? If so, please complete a short questionnaire we have put together for potential planning team volunteers. 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. Also, as with past conferences, we will be seeking co-sponsors, partners and other supporters to help make this event as great as it can be. Please read this to learn more about conference sponsorship opportunities.
2006 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation
The 2006 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation took place in San Francisco, California August 4-6, with some great pre-conference trainings on Thursday, August 3rd. The conference was held at the Renaissance Parc 55, a beautiful hotel in the heart of downtown San Francisco.
The Sights & Sounds of the 2006 Conference
One of the many online social media tools our conference Tech Team introduced to many of our participants (including many of the conference planners) was the very popular photo sharing site Flickr. As a result, there are now hundreds of photos from the conference available for your perusal. But it doesn’t stop there! We were podcasting via mobile phone, videotaping our large-group sessions and capturing mini-movies. On the low tech end of things, many of our sessions were graphically recorded and our participant’s artistic skills were put to the test at the Peace Tiles exhibit. Much of this was originally found at the conference blog, but weve brought it all together here. Also, we’ve recently added a few videos of the conference.
Conference Blog
For the first time in its history, the NCDD Conference offered access to material from its programming live over the internet — through the NCDD Conference Blog. Managed by Loretta Donovan of Worksmarts and maintained by a dedicated group of technologists, including Beth Kanter (a non-profit technology consultant) and Chris Heuer (of BrainJam!), the blog offered a peek inside the event for those who couldn’t be there. Although the conference is over, we have kept the this wonderful snapshot of the conference online for those who didn’t get a chance to join us — you’ll find live insights, mini-movies and even a few audio clips. Enjoy! We’ll be bringing our conference blog back soon to cover the preparation of the 2008 conference!
NCDD 2006 Sponsors & Supporters
The 2006 NCDD Conference was funded, in part, by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Whitman Institute, and by leading dialogue and deliberation organizations including the Forum Foundation, the Public Conversations Project and the Study Circles Resource Center. Visit this page to see a complete list of the generous organizations and individuals that helped make the 2006 NCDD Conference the amazing event that it was. A special thank you goes out to the Whitman Institute and all the volunteers that helped us set up for the conference, as well as the wonderful staff of the Renaissance Parc 55 who made sure we were comfortable throught the weekend.
Conference Guidebook (.pdf file)
The complete conference guidebook is now available for download. In it you will find information about all our sessions and workshops, more information about the arts at the conference and a full schedule of activities. Until we add the conference final report, this document will be the most comprehensive source of information about the event and what took place. It includes comprehensive descriptions of all the sessions that were held during the conference; along with more information about many of the event’s key players, details about the artists who joined us for the weekend and a complete listing of everyone who made the conference possible. Note: the file is a 1.5MB PDF file.
2004 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation
The 2004 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation took place in Denver, Colorado October 23-25, followed by trainings on Tuesday, October 26th. The conference took place on the campus of Regis University, with support from the Regis-based Institute on the Common Good.
2004 Conference Report (.pdf file)
In October 2004, over 300 people came together at Regis University in Denver, Colorado for the second National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation. Many participants identified as leaders in the emerging dialogue and deliberation fieldópractitioners who are breaking new ground in communities and organizations; creators of new methodologies for bringing peopleís voices into governance and community problem-solving; scholars who are researching the nuances and implications of this growing field.Others identified as ìnewbiesî to this work. Some were young people who wanted to learn whether this was a feasible field to plan to work in when they graduate. Some had switched careers mid-life, looking for work that had more meaning for them… Read more. (.pdf file)
2004 Event Guidebook (.pdf file)
The 2004 conference guidebook is available for download in PDF format. It includes a complete schedule of events, lists all the conference sessions, workshops and post-conference trainings, along with information about the location and art programming at the conference. Although not as comprehensive as the conference report (though the above report does not give a complete list of sessions), the guidebook provides an excellent look at the structure of the conference.
2002 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation
The 2002 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation took place in Alexandria, Virginia October 4-6, with pre-conference activities on Thursday, October 3rd. The conference was held at the Radisson Alexandria, just south of Washington, DC.
2002 Conference Report
The momentum that led up to the event began at MRAís Connecting Communities conference in June 2001 (MRA is now called Initiatives of Change), when Jim Snow of George Mason Universityís ICAR program and Tamra díEstree of Denver University began talking about the need for a conference that would allow dialogue and deliberation practitioners to experience each otherís models, share strategies and get to know their colleagues in the field. Cricket White of Hope in the Cities joined the conversation and quickly began drawing in other conference participants who were involved in leading dialogue and deliberation efforts… Read more. (.pdf file)
Become Involved with Our Events!
If you’re interested in attending, exhibiting, co-sponsoring, or just staying informed as we plan future events, email NCDD’s Office Manager, Joy Garman at and let her know. Our events are planned collaboratively by people with all levels of experience in dialogue & deliberation, and the planning teams are open to your suggestions and ideas. Email NCDD director Sandy Heierbacher at with any ideas you may have. We look forward to hearing from you!Follow these links to learn more about our conferences…
© 2003-2007 National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation.
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