This year the NISPAcee conference will for the first time organize a colloquium for practitioners. This colloquium intends to induce a discussion between practitioners and academics. It is not about discussing the quality of research papers, but about actual developments taking place in Public Administration in the NISPAcee region which are interesting to discuss from a pragmatic as well as an academic perspective.

After a short presentation by a scholar on a specific topic a extensive discussion will follow whether the developments in the public sector as sketched by the presenter are visible in the respective countries of the practitioners, what they see as background factors, what problems they experience and which solutions are sought in their countries. Therefore, it will not be a scholarly but an academic discussion. It is not about listening to presentations, but about participating in a debate what the topic implies for the practitioners. The goal is that practitioners can learn from the experiences from the countries of other participants, from best practices, good practices and bad practices; That they can share their own experiences; that they can bring pressing issues to the fore; and in the end that one of the main goals of Public Administration, that is bringing academics and practitioners together, can be achieved.

This year, among others, upscaling the public sector, and capacity building in the public sector will be discussed.

We do hope for participants from as many countries in the CEE-region as possible

Chair: Michiel S de Vries/Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands