We need to gather. In order to hear from one another.
The SunFest issues conference by The Colorado Sun, an independent nonprofit newspaper, is one chance to do that.
“Join The Colorado Sun as we talk to Colorado lawmakers, health experts, scientists and more about issues affecting Colorado.” (from SunFest promotional materials)
In September 2024, I attended this day-long event, consisting of four different sessions with 3-4 different sections to choose from within each session’s timeslot.
Here are some video links to past sessions from SunFest 2024.
I attended:
“The Libraries of the Past Are Gone. So What Are They Now?”
“Public Lands In Colorado: What Are They Used For?”
“Epic Descents: Mental Health”
and
“Immigrants, Migrants and Refugees: A Conversation About Efforts to Assimilate Newcomers To Colorado.”
The meetings took place on what I hadn’t realized is a beautiful University of Denver campus.
Hearing from quite a few different folks turned out to be significantly informational and was an overall well-rounded experience.
The Sun made efforts to gather people from different viewpoints or parts of the state for the sessions, to share perspectives on issues. This led to much more depth and nuance about complex issues compared to the usual super-brief sound bites, or hashtag-type of way we can gather info. It even differed from reading articles (or posts) about issues, since the “live” and in-person element also offered chances for questions and answers, and body language — so again, live back-and-forth.
More detailed notes to come on the sessions that I attended.
From their website:
“The Colorado Sun is a journalist-founded, award-winning and nonprofit news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state — our community — can better understand itself.”
