Pre-Conference 09: Communication and Freedom: Dialogues with Taiwan, Ukraine, and U.S. Officials

Gaylord National 

This four-hour, half-day preconference session (in person) brings together NCA conference participants, U.S. and international officials, and strategic communicators working on the frontlines to defend freedom in Taiwan and Ukraine. Featuring dialogues with Taiwanese and Ukrainian officials, participants will engage how innovative and effective communication practices can be used to defend freedom abroad. With its location near Washington DC, this preconference offers a unique opportunity to bring NCA members, U.S. and international officials, and invited guests to participate in facilitated/structured dialogues focused on how interdisciplinary approaches to communication might be used to help defend freedom-from interpersonal interaction, to mass media broadcasts, to cutting-edge social media campaigns. Participants will discuss advocacy, agency, (in)visibility, and intersectionality in relation to the benefits, limitations, and risks of different communication approaches, as well as identify and discuss new and helpful communication research. Scholars will moderate each of the two dialogues, asking provocative questions of both the featured commentators and the preconference participants to encourage exchange and knowledge sharing. The preconference will conclude with different affinity groups of scholars and practitioners sharing ideas and approaches for defending freedom abroad, exploring possibilities for cooperation and collaboration.

Preconferences