Consensus Conference
A consensus conference is a formal public deliberation in which a small panel of lay citizens questions experts on a contested issue, usually scientific or technological, and then writes a joint statement with conclusions and recommendations. The lay-panel format was developed in Denmark in the 1980s by the Danish Board of Technology, adapting earlier expert-only consensus conferences from US medicine. The citizens set the questions and help decide which experts answer them, which is what separates the format from a hearing or an expert panel.
Facilitation script
- 1
First preparatory weekend (two days): the panel meets, learns the process, works through the briefing material and begins to identify the questions that matter to it.
960 min - 2
Second preparatory weekend (two days): the panel finalises its questions for the conference and takes part in selecting experts so that opposing views are covered.
960 min - 3
Conference day 1: public opening, then experts answer the panel's questions in front of the audience and press.
480 min - 4
Conference day 2: the panel cross-examines the experts and asks follow-up questions.
480 min - 5
Conference day 3: the panel withdraws with its facilitator and drafts the consensus statement with conclusions and recommendations.
480 min - 6
Conference day 4 (half day): the panel presents its statement to decision-makers and the media, discusses it with them, and the report is released.
240 min
Tips
The panel's facilitator works for the panel, not for the commissioning body, and should be seen to.
Protect the drafting time: writing a joint statement overnight under pressure is where panels fall back on the views of their most articulate member.
Agree before recruitment how the commissioning body will respond to the statement, and tell the panel.
This is a months-long project with real costs for recruitment, expenses, venue and staff, so budget it as a programme and not as an event.
Common pitfalls
The planning committee or sponsor chooses the experts alone: the panel hears a narrowed debate and critics can dismiss the statement as steered
Briefing material written by one side of the argument: the panel's questions are framed before it has met, and the bias carries through to the recommendations
Pushing for full consensus on every point: disagreement gets papered over with vague wording, and the statement loses the specific judgements that make it useful
No agreed route into the decision process: the statement is presented, reported for a day and then has no visible effect, which discredits later participation efforts
Treating the panel as representative of the population: a claim of 'the public thinks' based on about a dozen people invites justified attack on the whole exercise
Variations
Where budgets are tight, organisers shorten the preparation or the conference itself; every cut reduces the time the panel has to learn, so be open about the trade-off. The term 'participatory consensus conference' is used for the Danish lay-panel model to distinguish it from the older expert-only medical version. Related deliberative formats include the citizens' jury and the citizens' assembly, which works with a much larger randomly selected group. Online sessions can replace some preparatory meetings, but the public hearing and the drafting work better in person.
Where it fits
When to use it
A public body faces a contested question about a technology or policy where the disagreement is about values as much as facts
Decision-makers want to know what informed citizens conclude after hearing all sides, not what an opinion poll says
There are several months and a budget for recruitment, preparation weekends, a multi-day public event and publication
Experts disagree with each other and the public has so far only heard the debate through advocacy groups
The commissioning body is prepared to respond publicly to recommendations it did not write
When not to use it
The issue is uncontroversial or purely technical: an Expert Panel or a Delphi Technique study gives a sound answer for far less effort
You need a binding decision: the panel's statement is advisory, so use the formal decision process and feed the statement into it
You want a group inside an organisation to reach agreement in a workshop: use a consent or consensus decision method such as Five-Fingered Consensus
The outcome is already fixed or the sponsor will not commit to responding: citizens who give several weekends to a process that is then ignored become its loudest critics
You need views that are statistically representative of a population: a panel of 10 to 16 is varied, not representative, and a survey or a larger citizens' assembly is the right tool
Related methods
Frequently asked questions
What is Consensus Conference?▾
A consensus conference is a public deliberation format in which a panel of roughly 10 to 16 lay citizens questions experts on a contested issue and writes a joint statement of conclusions and recommendations. The panel prepares over two weekends, chooses its own questions and helps select the experts. The lay-panel version was developed in Denmark in the 1980s by the Danish Board of Technology.
How long does a consensus conference take?▾
The visible part is two preparatory weekends plus a public conference of three to four days; the script on this page plans three full days and a closing half day. Planning, stakeholder analysis, recruitment and the production of briefing material add several months before that. It is a project with a secretariat, not a workshop activity.
Who sits on the citizen panel?▾
Lay people with no professional stake or specialist knowledge in the topic, chosen to vary in age, gender, occupation and where they live. A common approach is to invite a wide group to apply and then draw the panel from the applicants at random with demographic balance in mind. The panel is a varied group of informed citizens and should not be presented as a statistical sample.
Is the panel's statement binding?▾
No. The statement is advice to decision-makers and a contribution to public debate. Its weight comes from the fairness of the process and from a prior commitment by the commissioning body to respond to it in public.
What is the difference between a consensus conference and a citizens' jury?▾
Both are small panels of lay citizens who hear from experts and issue recommendations. What marks out the consensus conference is that the panel sets the questions itself, helps choose the experts and questions them at a public, multi-day event with press present, typically on a question of science or technology. The statement it writes is its own, drafted without the experts in the room.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from Danish Board of Technology.