Ohio and Sydney Conferences in March Designed to Create More Comprehensive, Effective Deliberative Democracy Projects

Two major conferences, poles apart in Sydney, Australia and Bowling Green, Ohio….both set for the mid-parts of March 2007, seem headed in the same direction, though with different kinds of participants. 

          “Community Engagement” in Sydney

The “Community Engagement” conference is being organized by the Government IQ division of  IQPC, Innovative Quality and Productivity Centre, Sydney, Australia www.iqpc.com  on March 15-17, 2007.  

Most of the presenters and participants will be government officials and political leaders from all levels of government throughout Australia….local, state and national.  Their goal, in collaboration with selected researchers and practitioners in deliberation and dialogue from Academe and NGOs, will be several-fold. 

The basic idea is to “implement innovative tools for governmental engagement of communities.”  These will include such proved methods as Citizens Juries, Citizen Assemblies, The Televote Scientific Deliberative Poll, etc.  The goal is to “develop a whole government approach to community engagement.”

           “Nexus for Change” in Ohio

One week later, another large group will meet at Bowling Green State University to do much the same thing.  This conference will bring together “an unprecedented” group of practitioners, researchers, leaders, activists, and educators to advance participative change methods.” 

The format will be very informal and is structured to promote a good deal of social interaction among many in the broader deliberative democracy movement who have not met before and to maximize their exchange of information so that some greater collective action can be generated among them in the future….whether that be research and/or more and more comprehensive large-scale public deliberation projects.  The website for this conference is at www.nexusforchange.org.