NCDD 2010 Portland: The Cascadia Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation
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Saturday, November 13, 2010 at the Hagen Campus Center, Concordia University
Our Portland gathering on November 13th brought together nearly 200 community leaders, public officials, public engagement practitioners, philanthropists, academics, and students from across the Cascadia region (Washington, Oregon and British Columbia), making it the largest of NCDD’s 2010 regional events! We even had attendees from California, Missouri, and Alaska! Our local hosts for the Portland event were the City of Portland Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI) and Concordia University. The event focused on connecting regional leaders (and future leaders!) to explore practical strategies for successful public engagement, and to help build capacity in this important work. If you’re on Facebook, be sure to “like” the Cascadia Dialogue and Deliberation Network Facebook page to see event materials, and to continue networking, connecting and exploring with colleagues from the region (all are welcome — even if you didn’t attend the event). |
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Check Out These Materials from the Event
- Download the event agenda and the event info sheet.
- Portland’s planning team co-leader, DeAnna Martin, has uploaded all available notes from the afternoon’s Open Space sessions to the Facebook page for the Cascadia Dialogue and Deliberation Network.
- Lief Utne wrote two great blog posts on the event. (part 1 | part 2)
- Photos from the event are posted in Facebook albums by Sandy Heierbacher, DeAnna Martin and others and here on Flickr.
- John Inman posted his thoughts about the event on his blog.
- Tree Bressen, Sue Woehrlin, and Dave Pollard have shared their notes from an Open Space session on the Pattern Language of Group Process wiki.
- Don MacGillivray contributed an article on the event to Portland’s SE Examiner.
Thank You to Our Portland Event Team!
- DeAnna Martin, Executive Director, Center for Wise Democracy
- Paul Leistner, Neighborhood Program Coordinator, City of Portland Office of Neighborhood Involvement
- Walt Roberts, Partner, Transformation Systems International (TSI)
- Elliot Shuford, Legislative Coordinator, Healthy Democracy Oregon
- Judith Mowry, Effective Engagement Solutions Program Coordinator, Portland Office of Neighborhood Involvement
- Tyrone Reitman, Co-Director, Healthy Democracy Oregon
- Tod Sloan, Professor, Lewis and Clark College
- Wendy Willis, Deputy Director for National Programs, National Policy Consensus Center
- Sarah Giles, Program and Communications Coordinator, National Policy Consensus Center
- Adin Rogovin, Board Chair, The Co-Intelligence Institute
More About the Portland NCDD Event
At the event, participants accomplished the following:
We held a kick-off World Cafe on the night before the conference. This evening dialogue was open to the community, and began our exploration of the state of citizen participation in public decision making.
Saturday afternoon’s programming was “Open Space” and participants were encouraged to self-organize and share their own experience and perspectives. Open Space Technology is a self-organizing practice that creates a marketplace of inquiry by inviting people to take responsibility for what they care about.
Participants offer topics they care about, reflect, and learn from one another. Read the notes from the sessions, written by session convenors/facilitators.
- Created a learning community to explore what quality public engagement is and how they can create more of it
- Met and networked with others interested in public engagement
- Shared what kinds of quality public engagement are happening in the region and what they are learning
- Explored ways to support each other in allowing quality public engagement to flourish here
We held a kick-off World Cafe on the night before the conference. This evening dialogue was open to the community, and began our exploration of the state of citizen participation in public decision making.
Saturday afternoon’s programming was “Open Space” and participants were encouraged to self-organize and share their own experience and perspectives. Open Space Technology is a self-organizing practice that creates a marketplace of inquiry by inviting people to take responsibility for what they care about.
Participants offer topics they care about, reflect, and learn from one another. Read the notes from the sessions, written by session convenors/facilitators.
About Our Hosts for the Event
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Our local hosts for the Portland event were the City of Portland Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI) and Concordia University.
ONI’s mission is to promote a culture of civic engagement by connecting and supporting all Portlanders working together and with government to build inclusive, safe and livable neighborhoods and communities. ONI was established in 1974, and the office serves as a vital communication link between residents, neighborhoods, and City of Portland bureaus. ONI works in partnership with many organizations including Neighborhood Associations, District Coalitions, Business District Associations other City agencies, and a wide range of community organizations and neighborhood activists to involve and inform the public in the civic life of the City. In addition, ONI provides a wide range of neighborhood livability direct services. Concordia University is a private, Christian, liberal arts university open to students of any faith. Nestled in the Pacific Northwest, Concordia University is committed to the dual purpose of preparing students for life and for a living. Concordia provides a challenging, yet supportive learning environment where spirited intellectual inquiry strengthens our commitment to justice, compassion and moral integrity. |
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Our Sponsors for the Portland Event
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Healthy Democracy Oregon is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization with a mission to promote innovative, deliberative reforms to resolve tough political issues. HDO was founded in 2007, by Oregonians Elliot Shuford and Tyrone Reitman. Healthy Democracy Oregon’s main project is the Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR). The CIR is an application of the well established Citizens Jury method of public deliberation, modified to publicly evaluate statewide ballot measures (or propositions). The goal of the CIR is to provide voters with a unique source of trustworthy and clear information about ballot measures. www.healthydemocracyoregon.org
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Sponsoring the Portland event at the Partner level…
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The Countywide Community Forums of King County is a public engagement program overseen by the King County Auditor. It was created by referendum in 2007, uses no public tax dollars, and is independently funded and run by volunteers. It is designed to enhance citizen participation, civic engagement, and citizenship education in government through a network of periodic public forums where people gather in small groups throughout the county, or online, to discuss current issues and provide important feedback to county government and other public officials. www.communityforums.org
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IAP2 Cascade Chapter serves public agency and private practitioners in Oregon and SW Washington. One of the largest U.S. chapters of the International Association for Public Participation, the Cascade Chapter hosts training, special events, workshops, and networking opportunities to advance the practice of public participation. www.facebook.com/pages/IAP2-Cascade-Chapter
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Policy Consensus Initiative (PCI) is a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to assisting leaders in developing pioneering, collaborative solutions to the problems they face in their states and communities. The National Policy Consensus Center, the research and development arm of PCI, develops and studies collaborative governance systems that enable leaders to achieve better solutions to public issues. www.policyconsensus.org
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The Co-Intelligence Institute (CII) promotes awareness of co-intelligence and of the many existing tools and ideas that can be used to increase it. The CII embraces all such ideas and methods, and explores and catalyzes their integrated application to democratic renewal, community problems, organizational transformation, national and global crises and the creation of just, vibrant, sustainable cultures. We research, network, advocate, and help organize leading-edge experiments and conversations in order to weave what is possible into new, wiser forms of civilization. www.co-intelligence.org
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Supporters of the Scholarship Fund…
- Duncan Autrey, Mediators Beyond Borders
- Ellen Greenlaw
- Kathleen Joy, Oregon Volunteers
- Molly Keating
- Muna Mohamud, Office of Human Relations, City of Portland
- Ruth Radford, Wintersun Group
- John Spady, Countywide Community Forums of King County
Stay Connected in Cascadia
We kept people updated on the event via the Cascadia-Network list — our discussion list for people in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia who work in dialogue, deliberation and public engagement. Subscribe by sending a blank email to [email protected].
We also encourage you to subscribe to our main Conference Updates announcement list, to receive periodic updates about all upcoming NCDD events. Send a blank email to this email address to subscribe.
We also encourage you to subscribe to our main Conference Updates announcement list, to receive periodic updates about all upcoming NCDD events. Send a blank email to this email address to subscribe.
On Facebook?
You can continue the conversation, get more information or stay updated via the Cascadia Dialogue and Deliberation Network on Facebook, which was created by the Portland planning team.