In Person
Interfaith Leadership Summit 2024
Want to bring people together? The Summit provides the knowledge, skills, and connections to make it happen.
August 2-4, 2024
Chicago, IL
What is the 2024 Interfaith Leadership Summit?
The Interfaith Leadership Summit is the largest gathering of college students and educators with a commitment to American civic pluralism. At the Summit, you get to connect with hundreds of people who care about the future of our religiously diverse society as they learn to bridge divides and forge friendships across lines of difference. In this divisive time, the Summit is a welcoming environment that offers new skills to participants along with sources of inspiration that can help bring your campus together. This year’s theme is The Ties That Bind, in recognition of those connections that can weave together our identities, campuses, and communities.
Any undergraduate student or educator at a U.S. undergraduate college or university is eligible to attend the Summit. Graduate students are also welcome and, when registering, should apply for an educator track.
Programming
What are the training tracks for the Summit?
Training tracks are designed to support those new to this work by engaging the fundamental concepts of interfaith cooperation. For students and educators returning to the Summit, there are advanced tracks that focus on fostering complex discussions about the intersections of interfaith work and the many challenges that interfaith leaders have faced. Whether new to the Summit or a repeat attendee, in every track students and educators will develop skills and engage with concepts that contribute to their interfaith leadership.
Throughout the Summit, an interfaith room will be available for prayer, meditation, reflection, and more. Due to the great diversity of traditions and practices represented, IA does not provide organized services or observances at the Summit. Instead, we encourage participants to organize their own DIY reflections and observances in the interfaith room or our staff can provide information about local houses of worship and observance.
Most of what you will need for the Summit will be provided at registration and in your training rooms, though you may want to bring something to write in. There may be few opportunities during the weekend where it might be useful to have spending money. If you have any further questions about what you should bring to the Summit, please reach out at [email protected].
Please come dressed in what makes you feel comfortable. Remember that hotels tend to pump air conditioning into the conference spaces all day, so even though it is summer in Chicago it will be wise to wear warmer clothes and maybe even bring a sweater. On Sunday, we hope everyone will wear their conference t-shirts to commemorate the interfaith leadership skills they have developed over the weekend.
Registration
Registration for the Summit is now open.
No, we do not offer on-site registration. Early Bird registration will close May 31st, 2024 and all registration will close June 28th, 2024.
Early bird registration opens April 8th and runs through May 31st, reducing the cost of attendance to $199 for students and $299 for educators. Registration then remains open until June 28th at $299 for students and $399 for educators.
Registration includes a Summit t-shirt and covers your training for the weekend and the following meals: Friday lunch & dinner, Saturday breakfast & lunch, and Sunday breakfast & boxed lunch.
Lodging and travel costs are not included.
Check your inbox and spam folder for your registration confirmation, which is automatically emailed from [email protected] once the registration form is completed.
Interfaith America recognizes that, due to various circumstances, the cost of attending the Summit may not be feasible for everyone who wishes to attend. Because we do not want cost to be a hindrance to engaging with interfaith leadership, IA has limited lodging scholarships available for undergraduate and graduate students on a first-come, first-served basis. Here is the link to the application!
If your campus has not attended the Summit (formerly the ILI) within the past 5 years, you are eligible to receive 2 free registrations! Email [email protected] to see if you are eligible and receive your discount code.
Our system does have group registration capabilities, which allows you to register more than one person under a single transaction. This feature appears on the Registration Summary page during the process. Please note that our registration does include personal questions ranging from demographic information to dietary restrictions to accessibility needs.
Dates & Venue
August 4 – 6, 2023
Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk 301 E North Water St, Chicago, IL 60611
Rooms are available at a discounted rate of $229/night for the nights of August 3 – 5 at the host venue of the Summit, the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk. Rooms will be available for reservation until July 3 or until they sell out. Please use this link to book.
You may also call the hotel to book at: 1-877-303-0104 and mention Interfaith Leadership America 2023 and the dates of the room block, which are August 03-05.
Both Chicago airports, O’Hare International Airport (17 miles from the hotel) and Midway International Airport (13 miles from the hotel), are roughly equidistant from downtown Chicago and have taxis, rideshares, and public transportation available.
Public Transit Resources:
The Amtrak Station is located at Union Station in Chicago, located at South Canal Street, Chicago, IL 60606. The train station is approximately 1.8 miles from the hotel. Taxis are available and CTA buses run between Union Station and the Sheraton. If you’re interested in taking public transportation from Union Station, please use the CTA trip planner.
Before the Summit, Complete this Course
Completion of our asynchronous online course, Foundations of Interfaith Leadership, is a prerequisite for attending the Summit. Summit sessions are structured as training workshops. This means that instead of passively presenting information to attendees, we will be diving right in to practice interfaith leadership skills in a hands-on way. In order to understand the conceptual basis for the trainings, you will need to complete Foundations ahead of time. It takes most people around three hours and can be done at your own pace on your computer or the ReligionAndPublicLife.org app.
Enrollment in Foundations of Interfaith Leadership is free for everyone. If you have any questions about the course, please email us at the Leadership Institute [email protected].
Offering this pre-requisite as a virtual course allows us to spend more of our in-person time building friendships and forging connections. Thank you for your cooperation!
Schedule
Friday, August 2
10:00 am–12:00 pm: Registration and check-in
11:30 am–1:15 pm: Opening Lunch & Plenary
1:30 pm–3:15 pm: Training Session 1
3:15 pm–3:45 pm: Break
3:45 pm–5:15 pm: Training Session 2
5:30 pm–8:00 pm: Dinner & Entertainment
Saturday, August 3
8:00 am–9:00 am: Breakfast
9:00 am–11:00 am: Saturday Symposia
11:00 am–11:15 am: Break
11:15 am–12:45 pm: Training Session 3
12:45 pm–2:00 pm: Lunch
2:00 pm–3:30 pm: Training Session 4
3:30 pm–4:00 pm: Break
4:00 pm–Bedtime: Free Time
7:30 pm–9:00 pm Optional Community Time
Sunday, August 4
8:00 am–9:00 am: Breakfast
9:00 am–10:30 am: Training Session 5
10:30 am–11:30 am: Break/Room Check Out
11:30 am–1:00 pm: Closing Program
interfaith Leadership Summit
Register Now
Whether new or a repeat attendee, the 2024 Summit will connect you with interfaith leaders across the country who share a commitment to civic pluralism.
Contact Us
Please contact us with any questions about the Summit.
Noa Nakao
Program Coordinator
Interfaith America
