Conference on dialogue held in Austin

More than 400 people from across the country gathered in Austin over the weekend to talk about, well, learning to talk better.

Facilitators, businesspeople, academics and others honed their public engagement and conflict resolution skills at the fourth biennial National Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation at the Renaissance Hotel from Friday through Sunday.

"I wondered what coming to an event with people talking about talking would be like, but it's wonderful," said Sandy Wilder, a first timer at the conference.

Attendees paid an entrance fee to participate in community-building workshops, engage in group dialogue and, of course, talk.

"It is talking about talking, but it's more than that," said Amy E. Jones, a first-year community and regional planning UT graduate student. "This could be used interdisciplinarily in a variety of fields… Dialogue leads to better action."