Discover the Power of Conversation at the National Leadership Forum

Collaboration and conversation serve as key elements of successful coalition development, planning and implementation. Social connections and shared experiences allow different views and ideas to come together, helping people learn from one another and driving innovation. Coalition members will have the opportunity to cultivate engaging, meaningful conversations through the Coalition Café at CADCA’s 22nd Annual National Leadership Forum, held Feb. 6-9 at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in Maryland. 

The Coalition Café will provide participants the unique opportunity to sit down in small groups with other coalition members from around the country and focus on and listen deeply to each other, make discoveries, learn and prepare to lead change through our insights and connections. This year’s Coalition Café, “The Power of Connections for Good,” will be held Wednesday., Feb. 8 from 7-9:00 p.m. and open to 250 participants on a first-come, first-served basis.

Ladonna Coy, New Media and Prevention Specialist of Learning Chi, Inc. and Café host, believes the Coalition Café provides a unique conference opportunity that helps attendees learn not only from experts in the field, but others on the ground in the community coalition world.

“The Café offers a lightly structured space for learning with and from each other,” Coy said. “Participants have the unusual opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise, consider diverse ideas and perspectives, and listen for patterns and connections that enable everyone to walk away with insights and wisdom they can put it into action.”

Traditionally, World Cafés place participants into small working groups of about four or five. The groups, armed with pens, markers and poster paper discuss and comment on specific questions in three 20-minute sessions. In these sessions, participants will have the opportunity to explore the theme of this year’s National Leadership Forum, “Collaborate, Advocate, Innovate,” as it relates to their coalition work and community engagement.

At the end of each session, one participant will serve as the host of table and remain seated while others move to a different table to tackle another issue with a fresh set of partners, offering insights from the previous conversation. After all three rounds, everyone connects and shares key themes, ideas, questions and discoveries in a group “harvest” comprised of the jotted notes and illustrations. Through the harvest, participants will be able to learn how to bring the world café model back to their communities and transfer the gained knowledge to other coalition members.

Coy hopes that attendees will learn how to use conversation as a tool that enhances coalitions’ ability to “come together with clarity and confidence” to achieve positive community change.

“In my way of thinking, conversation is action - it is how we learn as adults,” Coy said. “If I had one wish for coalitions, it is that they would have more opportunities for Café-style conversations. To me conversation is one of the most powerful and underutilized tools in the coalition toolbox.”