Visitors from 17 countries will come together in Washington, D.C., next week to discuss methods and challenges in organizing candidate debates.
The June 17-19 event, cosponsored by NDI and the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), will take place at NDI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Participants — who hail from Afghanistan, Argentina, Colombia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Moldova, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tunisia — will focus on best practices in organizing debates. Topics will include: negotiations with candidates, the role of the moderator, producing debates for TV and radio, and building regional debate networks. Participants will also share their own experiences and the hurdles they have faced putting on debates. The program will include discussions with Bob Schieffer, CBS chief Washington correspondent and anchor of Face the Nation, and Jim Lehrer, executive editor of PBS, both of whom have moderated presidential debates in the United States.
This is second international debate symposium put on by NDI and CPD. The first was held in Washington in 2009. Last October, NDI and CPD brought visitors from more than 10 countries to the presidential debate at Hofstra University where they could witness the process firsthand.