2025 NAC Pre-conference Training | IAP2's Fundamentals of Public Participation

The 2025 conference theme "Empowering Voices, Inspiring Participation" is about amplifying varied perspectives, fostering welcoming dialogue, and creating meaningful engagement that drives positive change. It’s about equipping individuals and communities with the tools, confidence, and opportunities to make their voices heard and their participation impactful.

The IAP2 North American Conference (NAC) is a 2.5-day event featuring workshops, keynote speakers, engaging sessions, celebrations, community building, knowledge sharing, and networking with fellow engagement practitioners.

What better place to gather than San Antonio, Texas? The 2025 North American Conference will bring together hundreds of public participation leaders from all levels of government, private industry, education, environment, health, transportation, academia, and community-based organizations from across North America and beyond.

Fundamentals of Public Participation | IAP2 Pre Conference Offering 

The Fundamentals of Public Participation (P2) course is a prerequisite to other courses in the Global Learning Pathway that sets out the underpinning models and frameworks of engagement practice as defined by the IAP2 community.

The focus of this course is on understanding and applying the practices of meaningful and effective P2 and what participants need to know to do this well. The training explores best practices, and how to design and apply this knowledge to your P2.

Course objectives:

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

• Define P2 and related terms and what makes it unique
• Identify what makes P2 meaningful, and reflect on the benefits, risks and myths related to P2
• Identify the role that values play in P2 work, and the leadership attributes that will serve them in practice 
• Reflect on and apply ethical leadership actions and abilities to P2 situations
• Apply the Profiles of P2 model to P2, and explore organization- and community-led engagement and how that impacts the engagement process
• Reflect on and apply the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion, and explore the roles and impacts of power and influence
• Apply the IAP2 Spectrum to P2 situations and practice
• Explore the Practice Framework as a tool for effective planning and process, and assess the quality of the process

Professional Certification/Credits

• This course is required for IAP2 Professional Certification.
• These course are eligible for APA - AICP Continuing Education Credit CM I 40 CM

THIS COURSE

Format: In-person before the start of the Annual Conference in San Antonia, TX

Sept. 28  Plan for a full day with a morning start time by 9am PT.

 — Cancellation and Substitution policy —

________________________________________________________________________