Progressive Roundtable

Progressive Roundtable^SM is Commonweal Institute’s name for events where we convene members of the modern progressive movement.

Progressive Roundtable events are working meetings, professionally facilitated, with specific objectives. Their purpose is to encourage coordination of leadership, messages, and resources to create a unified progressive voice and presence in the political landscape.

The first Progressive Roundtable, held in March 2006, brought together nearly 60 individuals from across the country who were engaged in policy idea generation, marketing and market research, framing and language development and testing, communications, public relations, political and communications strategy, media production, coordination of policy and social action programs, and progressive philanthropy. See the final report summary for details of the convening and its outcomes.

Our second event, the Bay Area Progressive Roundtable, in December 2007, focused on building links between San Francisco Bay area progressive activists. See the summary and video for more.

The third Progressive Roundtable took place in August 2009 and covened convened leaders of the progressive movement from all across the country in Duluth, Minnesota.  Newly minted Senator Al Franken kicked off the proceedings with a free public lecture and discussion attended by almost 300 local residents.  Read a brief description.