Gratitude and Highlights from #EVAL24
On behalf of the Grassroots Solutions team, I want to start with a heartfelt thank you to the conference organizers, presenters, and everyone who attended #EVAL24. We appreciate you and the way the community of evaluators showed up this year. We were grateful to be a part of it and congrats again to the award recipients for all you have done to build the evaluation field.
This year, four members of our team attended. Christina Kuo, Katie Fox, and I have been to AEA’s annual conference several times. It was our colleague Misty Blue’s first time. But whether it was our first or sixth time there, we were all struck by a few key things:
- The significance of having an opportunity to deepen connections and relationships with people—past and present clients, project collaborators, and friends of our firm—with whom we work but do not have the opportunity to see regularly in person. Food played an important role in that!
- Enthusiasm and engagement about ways to further push the envelope and increase the effectiveness of evaluation in advancing equity, sustainability, and social change.
- How session presenters and panelists spoke to tensions about improving efficiency and effectiveness AND the equal value of quality and relationships in our work. This underpinned a lot of what we heard about both the promise and potential consequences of using generative AI and emerging technologies in evaluation.
Also, I’d like to tip my cap to my colleagues, Katie and Misty, and Gigi Barsoum. Thanks for all you did to prepare and present. I love learning with and from you. Links to the materials that Katie, Misty, and Gigi shared are included below.
- Presentation Materials: Katie Fox and Gigi Barsoum, Organizer Learning Project – Centering Community Organizers’ Way of Knowing
- Read the report — Tilling the Soil: Cultivating Organizer Learning and Growth
- Presentation Materials: Misty Blue, Embracing Indigenous Leadership: Designing inclusive studies that drive change
To wrap up, I’d be remiss to not share some of the great things we ate. Getting a taste of Portland’s food cart scene was a treat. We loved breakfast at J & M’s Café, a bite at Oma’s Hideaway, and closing out the trip with dinner at Kann. Until next time, we’ll be dreaming about that chicken.
