Celebrating Our Time Together at NCDD2023!

We are still glowing from NCDD2023 - the National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation - held in Atlanta from Friday October 13th to Sunday October 15th, with preconference events that ran all day on Thursday!  The conference convened hundreds of practitioners across a wide spectrum of work connected to dialogue, deliberation, civic engagement, and more. It was an incredible time to come together, see old friends and make new ones, learn from each other, and find ways we can collaborate moving forward.

An immense THANK YOU to our conference sponsors for your generous support - you truly help drive this work and this field forward, and we couldn't do this without you!
Our NCDD2023 conference sponsors:

• Platinum Producers: The Democracy Fund and the Interactivity Foundation.
• Gold Star Sponsors: Forum Foundation/National Dialogue Network and the Charles F. Kettering Foundation.
• Sustaining Sponsors: Essential Partners, the Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue at James Madison University, Mismatch™ by AllSides, National Issues Forums Institute, and Worldwide Civility Council.
• Sponsoring Organization: Auburn University Office of Public Service.
• Conference Friends: American Leadership Forum, Keys to the City Community Coaching, Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration, National Civic League, Public Agenda, and the Public Square Academy.

Learn more about each of our conference champions at: www.ncdd.org/2023sponsors.html.

Huge THANK YOU to our indispensable conference planning team who worked hard to make NCDD2023 such a great success! NCDD conferences are collaborative from the beginning, which is why it was vital to have such a creative and supportive planning team. These phenomenal individuals offered their precious hours and valuable skills to make this conference a sensational reality - helping design the event, getting the word out, and volunteering on the ground to make sure things went smoothly. Putting on an event like NCDD2023 is no easy lift, yet because of the incredible team we worked with, they made it possible and a joy!

While the conference planning team worked hard to design a great event... it's thanks to our fantastic attendees who really brought NCDD2023 to life! It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces and also meet lots of new folks who have been doing this work (many of whom were first-timers to NCDD conferences!). NCDD conferences are always in-person reminders of just how powerful this work is and how truly catalytic we can be when we come together. We want the conferences to be incubators for motivation to do this work and connections to make it happen, both at the conference and beyond!​ ​

NCDD2023 featured four pre-conference sessions and several other events on Thursday, and over the following three official conference days we had: 60+ workshops, 3 engaging plenaries, 30+ presenters during the D&D Showcase, an Undergraduate Student Facilitator Summit, a screening of the Abortion Talks, and several organized dialogues and collaborative convenings; in addition to the countless connections made throughout the weekend. Check out the beautiful boards created by our team of graphic faciliators at the conference to get an idea of some of the workshops and plenary conversations - find the folder linked here!

We also used the Whova App to supplement the conference experience. The event planning app offered dozens of "open space-like" opportunities to convene community conversations, organize meet-ups, share images and videos, and support further networking connections.  
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Land Acknowledgement - NCDD2023 was held at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter in Atlanta, Georgia. It is important to understand the longstanding history that brought us to that land, and to seek to understand our place within that history. Land acknowledgements do not exist in a past tense, or historical context: settler colonialism is a current ongoing process, and we need to build our mindfulness of our present participation. We acknowledge the Muscogee (Creek) and Tsalagi (Cherokee) people who live, work, produce knowledge on, and nurture this land and were violently displaced from their lands. We invite you to join NCDD staff in providing an offering to the following two indigenous organizations on whose land the conference was held:

• The Muscogee Nation: http://creeknationfoundation.org/donations/ 
• Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee: https://georgiatribeofeasterncherokee.org/donate

We want to hear from you! The conference evaluation is up at tinyurl.com/NCDD2023Eval. Please be sure to let us know what you loved, what could have been better, and any advice you have for the next planning team. We appreciate any feedback you can offer and will take it into consideration as we plan our future events. Thank you so much!

There is a lot of follow up from the NCDD2023 conference that we will continue to share with you. Stay tuned to the NCDD blog and your email inboxes for more details! Sign up for NCDD updates at www.ncdd.org/listservs.html.