The Western Collaborative Conservation Network’s Confluence 2026 is officially set for May 19th–21st, 2026, and this year it will take place at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO.
For more insight on what we’ve done for Confluence in the past, click here.
Our overarching theme is: The Future of Collaboration: The Power of Working Across Divides.
For our sessions, we are looking for proposals that emphasize two-way learning and interaction with the audience. While this could include more traditional presentations with significant time for audience interaction, we are most interested in innovative ideas for active storytelling, facilitated discussions, and problem-solving labs (or other things we haven’t thought of yet!). We are seeking applications for two different categories: (1) skill-building sessions, and (2) community-building and connecting discussions and activities.
For posters, we are opening applications for two different categories: (1) skill-building, and (2) community-building and connecting. For each, posters can be focused on collaborative projects, storytelling, research, or other innovative elements of your work that you would like to share.
We are also looking for proposals for art pieces that speak to our overarching theme – The Future of Collaboration: The Power of Working Across Divides. In this moment of immense change and uncertainty, we feel that art offers an opportunity to communicate via alternative means, express ourselves as people more fully, and share visions of the future and hope with one another. We will consider visual arts, as well as other media types.
All applications are due by midnight on January 15, 2026. The planning committee will review all submissions and notify applicants by February 1, 2025.
