NGO enthusiasm for conducting workshops at the 68th Civil Society Conference in Salt Lake City in August 2019 was outstanding with over 200 different organizations applying for inclusion in the program. A small committee of dedicated volunteers from GNEC carefully reviewed each application. Never before had so many individual NGOs been able to participate in organizing their own meetings at an Annual Conference. The size of the Salt Palace Conference Center in Salt Lake City made this possible and gave the NGOs opportunities to share information and best practices and to develop partnerships to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The NGOs thus played a vital role in promoting the informal SDG motto, “Leave No One Behind.”

Topics of the workshops in Salt Lake City were all related to Goal 11 of the SDGs: Building Sustainable Cities and Communities. Under this banner, the NGOs addressed the needs of people of different ethnicities, cultural traditions, languages and religious beliefs and focused on issues of economic development, climate change, peaceful societies, youth empowerment, infrastructure, emerging technologies, women and girls, media and communication and interfaith dialogue.

During the GNEC year, numerous workshops are organized to address important issues. One of the most popular GNEC workshops held yearly is the Communications Skills Workshop designed to help NGOs