The University Network for Collaborative Governance, co-hosted with NCDD and the Association for Conflict Resolution, is holding its 2026 national virtual conference, Anchoring Our Future: How Can Collaborative Governance Meet the Moment? The two-day gathering brings together scholars, practitioners, and public leaders to explore how collaborative governance approaches can respond to a rapidly changing political and civic landscape. Hosted by the Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, the conference offers a blend of research presentations, practice-based sessions, dialogue, and networking opportunities for those working across mediation, stakeholder collaboration, and public dispute resolution. For NCDD's network, the event represents a direct extension of the organization's own commitment to collaborative civic action, bringing academic research and applied practice into conversation around shared governance challenges. Sessions will take place on October 30 and November 6, with each day running from 11:30 am to 5:00 pm Eastern. The conference offers dialogue and deliberation practitioners a chance to connect with adjacent fields in conflict resolution and public policy, strengthening cross-sector relationships central to NCDD's mission.

Roshan Bliss, Director of Democracy Innovations at the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD), discusses his most ambitious project yet in a recent episode of the Derate The Hate podcast: A House Divided, a reality television concept that places three groups representing left, right, and center cultural outlooks in a house together for seven days to work through a real community conflict under professional facilitation. Bliss frames the project around what he calls many-to-many conflict, arguing that most of the country's deepest disagreements involve entire communities rather than two individuals, and require structured, multi-stakeholder deliberation rather than debate or shouting. He describes plans to pair the show with AI-powered deliberative technology that lets a large viewing audience weigh in continuously on the unfolding conflict, extending the reach of dialogue and deliberation practice well beyond people who would normally seek it out. The project, now in active development with a sizzle reel underway and funding conversations with social-impact incubators, reflects NCDD's broader push to bring democratic deliberation into cultural spaces the field has historically struggled to reach.

The Compassionate Listening Project, a nonprofit organization that teaches listening as a tool for peacebuilding, is inviting participants to join its Borderlands Journey, an immersive nine-day program running November 7-15, 2026, through the Arizona-Mexico border region. The journey is built on the practice of Compassionate Listening, an approach that asks participants to seek the humanity in every person they encounter, and applies that practice to one of the country's most polarized policy debates. Over the course of the trip, participants meet with migrants, ranchers, Border Patrol agents, tribal members, and humanitarian volunteers, gaining firsthand exposure to viewpoints that rarely share the same room. The experience is designed to leave participants with an embodied listening practice they can carry into their own communities long after the trip ends. By modeling how deep listening can hold space for conflicting perspectives on a divisive issue, the Borderlands Journey offers a concrete example of the bridge-building and conflict transformation work at the heart of NCDD's mission.

Tzofnat Peleg-Baker, PhD, an applied social psychologist and developer of the 4⁴ Structured Reflective Instrument (4⁴SRI), is opening a new cohort of her international certificate program for mediators, facilitators, ombuds, and other conflict professionals beginning September 30, 2026. The program is grounded in the idea that many of the dynamics driving conflict operate beneath conscious awareness, and it trains practitioners to use a structured, four-layered reflective framework to notice and address those hidden dynamics rather than relying on instinct alone. Over seven monthly sessions, participants apply the framework to their own real cases within a supportive peer community, building a reflective practice they can carry into their work long after the program ends. Early-bird registration closes on August 31, 2026, offering a 20 percent discount on tuition. The program reflects NCDD's ongoing commitment to strengthening the skills and self-awareness of practitioners working at the front lines of dialogue and deliberation.

Utah State University's Environmental Dispute Resolution (EDR) Program, in partnership with the USU School of Social Sciences and Heravi Peace Institute, is offering its 2026 Collaboration Certificate Course, a seven-session online training in the art and science of collaborative problem-solving and conflict resolution. Led by EDR Director Danya Rumore and Associate Director Emily Gaines-Crockett, the course combines lectures, case studies, peer sharing, and simulation exercises to build practical skills in convening, facilitating, and sustaining multi-party collaborative processes. Participants gain techniques for identifying when a situation is ready for collaboration and for leading stakeholders through conflict toward shared solutions, with graduates invited into an ongoing Collaborative Leadership Network. For dialogue and deliberation practitioners, the course offers a rigorous, hands-on path to strengthening the facilitation and consensus-building capacities at the heart of NCDD's mission.