For a week in July 2024 I attended the International Cultic Studies Association Conference, at the University of Barcelona, in the centre of the beautiful, historic city of Barcelona. I went there with two friends; Anke Richter - author of the best-selling book "Cult Trip" and founder of Decult Cult Awareness Conference, and Liz Gregory - my co-host on Cult Chat, and founder of the Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust. During the conference Anke and Liz gave their own presentations about their individual work, and also the three of us came together in a panel presentation called "Is New Zealand A Little Bit Culty - the rise of awareness, advocacy and action on the path to justice." We spent 90 minutes talking about the New Zealand cult awareness context, and the events over the last decade or so that has brought focus and attention on both the cultic activity in New Zealand, and also the work each of us are doing individually, and together. We emphasised the importance of collaboration, and how this has the power to amplify action.

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At the conference we also attended a large number of sessions, and met a great number of new people - professionals, educators, advocates, survivors, and researchers. We were encouraged and uplifted, we were welcomed and cheered on, we made many new friends. Some of these friends we will see again at the October 2024 Decult Conference. Some of these friends we have now teamed up to start exciting new projects, and powerful new alliances.

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Liz and I spent the four days buzzing around interviewing people about their stories, about why they were in Barcelona, about what they are passionate about. We also stopped frequently to summarise our learnings. Below I attach the interviews with delegates, and also our brief summaries of the presentations we were attending. Watch our short chats below, and share some of our learnings along with us.

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Looking forward to next year's conference, ICSA Conference 2025 in Montreal!