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The D&D Showcase was a lively reception and networking event that provided an opportunity for select individuals and organizations in our field to showcase some of the leading ideas, tools, projects, and initiatives in dialogue & deliberation with conference participants all in one space.

2023 Showcase Lineup

AssumptionScope: Reflecting on Assumptions in our Systems and Society

• Matthew Shapiro - Organizer; Boisevolve

Assumptions are the ideas, beliefs, or values that usually go unexamined. Many of the problems in our organizations, communities, and society as a whole can be traced to the unexamined nature of assumptions, because those assumptions often do not actually fit with reality or with people's needs and aspirations. AssumptionScope is a new process and a tool for surfacing and collectively reflecting on the assumptions underlying any system or institution, and inviting public evaluation of those assumptions. This can, in turn, create readiness for replacing invalid and outdated assumptions with core ideas and values that actually reflect the needs and aspirations of stakeholders, a key step in redesigning or old institutions or designing new ones.

Building a Movement: Everyone Has a Role to Play

• Marquelle Ogletree - Student Co-Director; University of Florida Changemakers' Dialogue Program
• Joey Puell - Student Co-Director; University of Florida Changemakers' Dialogue Program
• Manda Wittebort - Program Coordinator, Brown Center for Leadership & Service; University of Florida Changemakers' Dialogue Program

Explore how a dialogue program was co-created at a university by building infrastructure for a space across a diverse yet fragmented campus. Learn how the power of a dialogue community as a bridge-building tool that challenges the status quo to create a movement toward social change. Presenters will share the story of how dialogue can reform existing structures and break away from traditional practices. As well as, provide context for the dynamics of our campus, why space for critical conversations is vital, and the unique program we built through lateral power and weaving disconnected stakeholders together to illustrate the role everyone plays in enabling movements for social change.

Building Conflict-Positive Organizations

• Presenter: Daniela Cohen - ARIA Group Associate; The ARIA Group

Participants will be introduced to the ARIA Creative Conflict Engagement Systems (ACCESS), which are designed to build and sustain conflict-positive organizations. They will have a chance to learn more about the characteristics of a conflict-positive organization and explore how this framework can be used to facilitate increased creativity and collaboration in the organizations and communities they are a part of. 

Building Intergenerational Ally Awareness: Using the 3-“I”s Timeline Tool

• Andrea Monroe - Lead Coach/Facilitator, EDI Makerspace LLC

Come explore generational responses to social justice issues, discover allies of all ages, and build an inter-generational playlist of socially conscious pop culture! Evolving from U-Michigan’s Intergroup Relations ‘Critical Incidents” timeline exercise, the 3 “I”s Timeline Tool is designed to unpack and explore ally work across generations as users are invited to map individual, interpersonal and institutional responses to social justice issues within historical contexts. The 3 “I”s Timeline can be a stand-alone exercise for dialog groups and/or the beginning of a reflective journal designed to deepen self-awareness and knowledge of how "the personal is political" across generations, for example, by exploring/comparing how the fight for women’s rights is shaped by family and friends, social-cultural community groups, and government institutions over 2-3 decades. 

Co-Creating an Omni-Win Democracy

• Duncan Autrey - Creator; Omni-Win Project

Learn about the systemic, cultural, personal and relational changes that we need to navigate a complex future together. We have processes to help people communicate across differences, but  healing political division and fixing the crisis in democracy will require new paradigms and structures. We're going to figure out how to stitch it all together.

Community Mediation Movement: NAFCM

• D.G. Mawn - President; National Association for Community Mediation

Serving as the hub for the community mediation movement initiated by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Part X, the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM) is here for all those who are facilitating the possibility of justice, social cohesion and peace in their communities. Come join NAFCM, and let us advance your work, aggregate your wisdom and amplify your voice. More than half of NAFCM's budget funds local efforts throughout the United States and Canada. These efforts have addressed concerns such as: Veterans rights, Older Adults, Formerly Incarcerated Adults, Houselessness, Marginalization of Young Adults, African-American communities, Immigrant communities. Current efforts focuses on School-Community Relations, Re-imagining Safety and Rural Empowerment. Connected through a multitude of on-line platforms NAFCM co-creates opportunities with our members to maintain a culled Virtual Library, Webinars, large group gatherings such as Big Tuesdays, Momentum May and the Assembly and more intimate gatherings such as TRUST+. Come experience the support and cohesion of being part of the NAFCM family; part of the community mediation movement and experience of the abundance of being part of a community that knows we are only as amazing as all those who make up the we- like you.

Connecting with the Ruralist of Rural Communities

• Russell Plaschka, PhD. - Kansas State University Instructor and Director of Agriculture Marketing; Kansas Department of Agriculture

Creating engagement tools/activities for rural communities can be challenging, particularly when you consider each rural community contains its own culture that is singularly unique. Through the work at the Kansas Department of Agriculture and Kansas State University’s Staley School of Leadership, we developed the Strategic Growth Initiative (SGI). The SGI facilitates focused community discussions on current agricultural assets/resources they have and to foster meaningful conversations on what realistic community development can occur while addressing the challenges of population, economic, and political loss within their communities.  The result is a collaborative path forward that involves all community members. 

Engagement Innovations: Freedom Fortnight and the Living History Station

• David Campt, PhD.  - Founder & President; The Dialogue Company

Freedom Fortnight is the period between Juneteenth Freedom Day and July 4th Independence Day - both permanent national holidays. These holidays and the themes surrounding them can create opportunities to dialogue about the nation's messy past and common future. The Living History Station is an installation at a local county gathering aimed at sparking increased interest in the local history in a county of rural North Carolina. Learn how these low-cost engagement innovations can be designed to create useful interactions among people from very divergent racial and ideological perspectives in these divisive times. 

Finding Joy in Hot Button Discussions

• Lisa Stiller - Board Member; Consistent Life Network

This is an idea sharing showcase space! How do we plan and facilitate discussions on hot button issues that result in people understanding where common ground lies and hopefully finding ways to move ahead together on an issue if they choose.

Four Styles of Civility

• Robert Sachs - Author; The Path of Civility and Becoming Buddha

What does President George Washington have in common with the Buddha, Sakyamuni? Author and teacher, Robert Sachs, brings together the lessons and teachings of these two great men; one an exemplary political figure, the other, the founder of one of the world's great wisdom traditions. Learn how to cultivate healthy, intelligent, communication and action inspired by and rooted in civility.

Global Perspectives on Dialogue in the Classroom:  Cultivating Inclusive, Intersectional and Authentic Conversations

• Ashmi Desai - Assistant Professor, Communication Studies; San Francisco State University
• Hoa Nguyen - Associate Professor, Marriage and Family Therapy; Valdosta State University

Global perspectives on dialogue in the classroom: Cultivating inclusive, intersectional and authentic conversations seeks to fill a gap in communication and education literature related to decolonizing dialogue by decentering Eurocentric perspectives and providing space for globally-informed, culturally-rooted dialogic practices. With thirteen chapters from scholar-practitioners who facilitate dialogue within various contexts, including a bible circle, sculpture studio, trauma and peace-building program, university classroom, therapy, among others, this co-edited collection connects dialogue to teaching and learning to emerging ideas and power disruption, in-betweenness and relationality.

How to Give Students a Real Life Civil Discourse Experience

• John Gable - Co-Founder and CEO; Mismatch by AllSides
• Samantha Shireman - Director of Product; Mismatch by AllSides
• Becca Kearl - Executive Director, Living Room Conversations

What if high school students had access to a conversation with their political, racial, geographical, and socio-economic opposite? How might that impact their view of the "other" as they form their own identity? With Mismatch, students talk to people who are different from them, inspiring them to connect beyond their immediate world and build a healthy democracy - without leaving the classroom. 

Kindness - The Superpower for the 21st Century and Beyond

• Jeff Edelstein - Founder and Executive Director; Acts of Kindness Maine

We will introduce kindness (for adults) as a powerful tool for the field of D & D in these challenging times, featuring kindness activities happening at the NCDD conference, info on national and regional kindness organizations, and AOK Maine’s work with: 1) Kindness techniques for convening and facilitation, with “how-to” tips, and guides; 2) Using kindness as a topic for dialogue, including our “Power of Kindness” adult education courses; “Kindness for the Holidays” workshops; Kindness storytelling workshops, and more; 3) Community Kindness Committees as part of local government; 4) Using kindness as a framework to address political and interfaith divides. 

Local Civic Health Guide: Building Community and Bridging Divides

• Carrie Portrie, PhD. - Research Assistant Professor, New Hampshire Listens, Carsey School of Public Policy, University of New Hampshire
• Quixada Moore-Vissing, PhD. - Founder and Principal, Public Engagement Partners & New Hampshire Listens Fellow
• Michele Holt-Shannon - New Hampshire Listens Director and Carsey School of Public Policy Co-Interim Director, University of New Hampshire

Much like when doctors conduct a check-up to assess our health, we can work together to assess local civic health – how much people trust each other, show up at public meetings, get involved, vote, and help out neighbors. New Hampshire Listens engagement specialists and Carsey School of Public Policy researchers, at the University of New Hampshire designed a local civic health guide to help people understand what brings people together or pushes them apart – mapping community populations, evaluating how spaces build or discourage community, building equity into engagement processes, and collecting and analyzing data, including surveys, dialogues, and civic photojournalism.

Oriented to Love: Bridging Theological Difference and Queer Identity

• Erin Oeth - Community-Based Facilitator/Consultant; Erin Oeth LLC

Launched in 2011, Oriented to Love (OTL) is a program of Christians for Social Action (CSA) created to provide spaces where LGBTQ+ voices can be elevated and honored by the North American church, and where Christians who identify as straight/cisgender can begin to understand the cost—to everyone—of excluding LGBTQ+ people of faith. With the goal of turning high conflict into healthy conflict, we work not towards uniformity of belief/behavior but rather towards: healthy faith communities willing to engage across difference through loving dialogue and compassionate curiosity; increased opportunities for queer people to flourish within their faith communities; and a greater understanding of the impact of both exclusion and inclusion—whether religious or political—whether among conservatives or progressives—on the broader community. This showcase session will highlight OTL programming and efforts, along with tools and resources to support individuals and faith communities interested in dialogue. 

Outdoor/River-Based Retreats for Rest & Renewal

• Katie Weaver - Owner; Meadowlark Guide Co.

Meadowlark Guide Co came into being as a space for connection and transformation. As humans, we are hardwired for connection and we believe it is needed now more than ever. In this fast-paced, information- and technology-driven world, Meadowlark Guide Co is the embodiment of a slower, quieter, and more meaningful existence. We provide space for people to slow down, take a deep breath, center their own needs, realign with natural rhythms, and seek opportunity for transformation.
Meadowlark Guide Co hosts river trips and retreats throughout Montana and Wyoming.  We co-create experiences with artists, educators, healers, and innovators, weaving together elements of personal development, healing modalities, and adventure with the intent that people will find more deep and meaningful connection to place, self, and community.

Share Our America: Using Dialogue as a Foundation for Change in Local Communities

• Kenny Andejeski - Tennessee Organizing Lead; Share Our America Initiative

From the organization that brought you GivingTuesday and Ben Franklin Circles, 92NY’s Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact launched Share Our America to help local leaders build a more connected, collaborative country where everyone can thrive. This in-person gathering intervention - built using Essential Partners' Reflective Structured Dialogue approach -  not only reduces polarization but also helps people build the foundation for change in their communities. After successful pilots in NE, PA, TN and NY, Share Our America is primed for scale. We are actively seeking collaborators looking for dialogue interventions that supplement their focus on mediation, counseling, DEI and mental health. 

"Soup to Nuts" Problem-Solving D&D

• Roger Bernier - Dialoguer/Moderator; Crosscurrents Dialogue Group

We would like to feature  how we address the different challenges of using dialogue and deliberation to work through the different tasks or steps in the problem-solving process from problem identification at the start to possible solutions at the finish. Our model carries people through all the tasks required to be completed to problem solve effectively, short of actual implementation. It achieves some degree of all the purposes of dialogue including better understanding, conflict resolution, policy decision-making, and advocacy. We demonstrate that the model can productively address the deep political polarization that now characterizes American society, perhaps the greatest challenge in the field.

The Deliberative Journalism Project

• Martin Carcasson - Director; Colorado State University Center for Public Deliberation

The Northern Colorado Deliberative journalism project was launched in the fall of 2022 as a collaboration between the CSU Center for Public Deliberation, the CSU Journalism and Media Communication Department, local newsrooms, and other local civic organizations. It is focused on infusing local journalism with key deliberative tools and techniques in order to both support local democracy and reimagine and sustain/rebuild local journalism. The showcase will share the story of the DJP and our 7 key tasks, and provide an overview of our developing deliberative journalism toolkit.

Using Sustained Dialogue in Entrenched Conflicts

• Elena Martínez-Torres - Sustained Dialogue Campus Network Program Director; Sustained Dialogue Institute
• Rhonda Fitzgerald - Executive Director; Sustained Dialogue Institute

From international diplomacy to everyday conflicts: This showcase is designed to learn the 5 stages of any Sustained Dialogue process and a sample project plan for an entrenched conflict that might use this tool. Models for implementation at college campuses and workplaces will be provided. 

40 years of Dialogue Across Difference: Practical Tools and Lesson Learned

• Nory Angel - CEO, American Leadership Forum Houston
• Suzanne St. John Crane - CEO, American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley

For 40 years, American Leadership Forum chapters have joined and strengthened over 5,000 leaders across sectors, ideologies and communities using mindful dialogue strategies to build bridges of empathy and understanding. ALF incorporates the work of David Bohm, David Kantor, Harvard’s Adaptive Leadership Model and racial justice leaders Dr. Shawn Ginwright and N’Tanya Lee. As a result, leaders who were previously strangers – or even adversaries - have embarked on transformative collaborations for community benefit. ALF Silicon Valley CEO Suzanne St. John-Crane and ALF Houston CEO Nory Angel will walk participants through a variety of techniques about how to engage in transformative courageous conversations. Participants will receive ALF Silicon Valley’s Dialogue 2.0 guidelines as a takeaway.
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