IAP2 North American Conference : Call for Proposals

IAP2 North America Conference 2012 – Call for Proposals

IAP2 Canada is hosting an IAP2 Conference on behalf of IAP2 Canada and IAP2 USA.

Here is their message - please share with your colleagues and networks

Welcome to the 2012 North American IAP2 Conference! We are extremely excited to be working with our partner organization IAP2 USA to bring you this event and hope you can join us September 30-October 2, 2012 in beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

You’re Invited
This call for proposals is for interested individuals, groups or organizations to present and share their insights and expertise in the P2 field. Our team was inspired by the idea of P2 equally involving the head, heart and hands and through our conference themes hope to explore how each of these play an integral role in expansion and growth of public participation. We aim to involve researchers, stakeholders, academics, community members, decision-makers, practitioners and others to build together a diverse audience thereby truly getting a 360 perspective.

Conference session proposals must support or align with one of the sub-themes. The key focus questions are not meant to limit but rather used as a launch point and touchstone.

Theme Key Focus Questions

STIMULATE your mind
What have you learned, discovered, proven or identified from your research, study of the field or experience, which will advance the growth and practice of public participation.
This is all about the thinking…..

MOTIVATE your heart
What is at the heart of public participation? We think it might lie in the values, ethics, and feelings associated with P2. What is it that motivates, influences or provokes involvement or lack thereof in public participation?
This is all about the feeling…..

PARTICIPATE in action
What tools, activities, techniques are defining the cutting edge of public participation? How do you find the balance between the “tried & tested” and the “innovative & creative?”
This is all about action…..

For more information please download the full Call for Proposals and proposal template.Proposals are DUE March 23, 2012 and questions should be directed toconference@iap2canada.ca

Market Creek Plaza Field Trip

IAP2 Conference delegates learnt the history, hopes and sheer determination that has been and still is Market Creek Plaza. Australasian Affiliate Board member, Kimbra White reported : "What a wonderful experience we had - local heros depicted in sculptures and street art; Samoan dancers and children rehearsing for upcoming community events and local guide Roque Barros made it a great learning opportunity." Other feedback from delegates included:
"this is a fine example of a community that has kept on keeping on"; "truly inspiring"; "thanks IAP2 for putting on this field trip".

Kick off in San Diego

Mayor Jerry Sanders opened the conference and from first hand experience explained the consequences of what happens when public lose trust in government, and the outcomes of rebuilding that trust. He gave a wonderful overview of what happens when decisions aren't sustainable and told delegates how this is being addressed now, for the future, in San Diego. When public officers and elected officials misuse their trust and position it leads to more than a financial crisis. The path ahead is built on decisions that will stand the test of time and he gave delegates some fine examples of how those relationships at the community level are the very foundations. With the room full of experts in the field of public participation from around the world there were no arguements there!

President of IAP2, Anne Pattillo told delegates that "sustainable decision making for IAP2 is powerful and deceptively simple. It sits at the foundation of our practice. It requires decision making focused on the future and our hopes, aspirations, concerns and goals. An engagement practice that demands on being clear about the decisions to be made and grounded on the values that underpin the best practice and philosophy of the people involved.

" IAP2's contribution to the need to live more sustainably is and has always been ensuring that the social dynamic has people affected by the decision with the most powerful voice in decision making. Decision making that balances technical, financial and environmental factors with the relativity and richness of life and living.

"Now more than ever the decisions required to make the changes required to adapt and build our family, community and national resilience cannot simply be made in senates and at Council tables but must also be made in communities and in families and at kitchen tables."

Anne welcomed delegates and thanked them for accepting the invitation to come to the conference table and then to lead these conversations all over the world as researchers and practitioners.


We will be blogging throughout the conference ... more to come ...

My San Diego

To the sounds of Marachi musicans, with the sun setting and delegates gathering, local IAP2 conference convenor Lewis Michaelson welcomed people from around the world to the city of San Diego and state of California. Bennett Peji shared some of the sites of the city and environs reminding everyone gathered of the sense of place and the international flavour and intense cultural life of the region. International President of IAP2, and President of the Australasian Affiliate of IAP2, New Zealander Anne Pattillo encouraged everyone to enjoy the city, the progam but most of all each other as they learn and play together at the 17th International conference. The Program committee were delighted to have such a wonderful event and co-chair, Deborah Eastlick, immediate Past President of the Wild Rose Chapter from Calgary, Canada and not to be too distracted by all the wonderful attractions of the city!

Core Values Awards - Extended to June 8th

Do you know of an organisation or project that demonstrates excellence in public participation?

The annual Core Values awards are remaining open for one more week and will close on June 8th when the judges will begin their work! So far there are submissions from Ghana, Australia, USA, Thailand and Canada - so get yours in to let everyone in the global P2 community know of your world class work.

Award winners will be announced in San Diego as part of the 17th International IAP2 Conference.

All the information to submit your award winning application is found on the IAP2 home page - just follow the links!

Conference Keynote Practitioners Announced

In the light of current public policy engagement in the USA with online brainstorming at the White House we are delighted to announce a participatory approach to the final day of the 17th International IAP2 Conference.

What if public engagement for sustainable decisions is becoming the new normal in our governments, schools, businesses, and other systems? What is the promise? What is the price? How do we seize the moment?

The morning of Wednesday September 23rd will be spent exploring one of our field's most pressing challenges: how do we make public engagement more integral to our systems? Let's see what creative solutions, ideas, and even next steps can we come up with together! Sandy Heierbacher, Director of the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD), and Myriam Laberge & Brenda Chaddock of the Masterful Facilitation Institute will lead this highly experiential session using innovative participatory techniques that you can take back home.

Don't sit on the sidelines - join in the discussion and be there to shape the future.

San Diego Conference Updates

RFPs for Event organiser have now closed.

Conference presentation submissions have been coming at a fast and furious pace and the assessment process now commences under the leadership of program co-convenors and Board members Deborah Eastlick and Mitch Bishop.

The pre-conference training program is nearing completion and announcements about that program are underway.

We hope to see you in San Diego in September, early bird registrations are now open http://www.iap2.org/

Conference Presentations Background Briefing Q & A

If you are preparing to submit a conference presentation for consideration by the program committee and have questions - let us know and we will respond via this blog entry. Here are the questions and answers from the teleconference background briefing and new questions that have come in subsequently. Keep 'em coming!

Q: Will there be real-time simultaneous translations into other languages of presentations?

A: None are planned at this stage, we will welcome though sessions in English, Spanish and French consistent with our membership profile.

Q:Will you accept submissions that pay attention to business outreach participation strategies?
A: Yes if the outreach reflects a two-way strategy and where there has been public engagement to enhance participation in decision-making

Q: Can you please provide some more clarity on the differences between the streams.

A: Each of the streams pays attention to a different part of the process of decision-making; and one way to consider these differences it to notice that there is a pre-decision process; a decision process and a post decision-process. We recognise that many processes and projects could fit into any one of the streams so one we have received all the submissions we would be very happy to review them and see where they best fit which may lead to submissions being aligned in a different stream to the one they were submitted in to enable balance in the overall program.

Q: Our preferred project to showcase is a large city-wide project and we are not sure what to focus on that will meet the conference objectives – can we have some ideas about what focus we should take?

A: Typically IAP2 conference participants are looking for tools they can use in their practice and learning from others about what works and what doesn’t work – so some of the best presentations have been about processes and techniques that didn’t work! Learning from others and being shown how to apply tools and techniques, identifying skill and knowledge sets, resources to enable and enhance processes are all appreciated by IAP2 conference participants; in other words you may like to highlight aspects of the project you have selected rather than the project as a whole.

Q: Have you got any conference papers we can review from the past?

A: While there are past conference papers and we will be putting some previous ones on our website, we would not want you to look to these as exemplars. As we are all about participation, much of what can be reproduced is difficult to present in this kind of a platform, due to the interactive nature of the sessions. This is one of the reasons we would prefer to call for “presentations” and not “papers”. In this program we are looking for highly participatory sessions, including technology enabled, film/video, site visits, experiential learning and use of techniques in presentations that enhance the learning transfer (eg world cafe, bear pit, open space). Do not restrict yourself to the concept of papers when you submit your presentation for consideration by the program committee

Q: How many sessions are there going to be?

A: This is still under consideration, there will be capacity for hour and one and half hour sessions. We are anticipating 25 -30 sessions. So are seeking around 100 submissions in order to make program selections.

Q: Can we submit more than one submission for consideration?

A: Yes

Q: Will you be open to receiving program ideas that reflect non-conference elements such as the use of techniques for conference participant engagement?

A: Yes and please send them in!

Q: is it possible for us to get a vendor booth area where we could offer interactive demos of our software? If so, would that cost extra?

A: IAP2 is exploring offering site space for vendors and will be providing additional information on this aspect in March.

Q: Is being a sponsor the way to go in order to be able to set-up a booth at this conference?

A: Sponsors will other types of access to the registrants as you will see from the sponsorship brochure; this is dependent on the level of sponsorship taken. We will be offering booth space to a range of vendors that compliment the conference and its themes (eg book store on the topic, web-based tools and devices).

Q: Under the various Sponsorship packages, it mentions 'Other Opportunities'. Do those 'Other Opportunities' include the conference registration fees and any company logo placement?

A:The sponsorship packages offer some options for registration places and places to the Core Values Gala Event. The 'other opportunities' include supporting an international registrant to come from an under-developed country, providing support to the volunteer team (eg they could be wearing t-shirts provided by your company with your logo on it etc).

Q:Are there any discounts for presenters, if we were one who would be chosen?

A: There are no discounts for speakers. As the presentation submission information brochure says presenters are expected to register for the conference.

Q: Will you pay for speakers expenses?

A: No

See you in San Diego in September! Conference Registrations are now open