The 2018 Democracy R&D Annual Meeting was the network’s first. Over the course of two days in Madrid, Spain, participants came together to discuss and propose solutions to some key and fundamental questions for the network: what would be the network’s mission and vision, how could the network benefit its members, what member organizations would commit to doing to help establish the network, and what would be the decision-making process of the network, to name a few.
This meeting was not completely concerned with deliberative democracy and mini-publics in practice. Instead, it was an engaging and participatory gathering of members to shape the network. Sessions were dedicated to getting to know fellow members, learning what members needed and wanted from the network, and how they could achieve those wants and needs. The intention was to co-create a system and organization to help the field of deliberative democracy grow collaboratively.
