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brt and Ciclovía in Guadalajara. Using qualitative and ethnographic
methods, I showed that study tours were powerful instruments to
promote policy change thanks to their capacity to educate the atten-
tion of influential local policy actors through hands-on “experien-
tial learning”, expand local coalitions through the building of trust
and consensus around a policy model, and mobilize public opinion
through references to already existing policies. In this article, however,
I focus my analytical lens on an earlier stage: the policy inspiration and
persuasion process that often precedes the celebration of a study tour
to another city and that often takes place during conferences and talks
of what I here call “persuasive practitioners”. Despite their central
role in the introduction and circulation of new policy ideas, the role of
conferences and policy forums is undertheorized in the literature on
policy transfer and learning. Conferences, forums and workshops are
often considered a “black-box” in which exchanges of knowledge and
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[20] Sabatier, 1988; Dolowitz; face-to-face contacts lead to a change in beliefs among participants,
Marsh, 2000. and yet, less is known about the actual practices through which poli-
cy-makers and advocates learn about new policies. Reflecting on the
21
[21] Gilardi; Radaelli, 2012, p. 162. recent literature on policy learning, Gilardi and Radaelli have noted
that “we still do not know much about how communities of social ac-
tors — especially policy-makers — learn”.

POLICY LEARNING, POLICY FORUMS AND FACE-TO-FACE COMMUNICATION

Even though email, social media and Skype have made informa-
tion exchange easier, there are features of face-to-face contact that
cannot be matched by technology-mediated encounters. It is pre-
cisely these spatial features of face-to-face encounters that forums
[22] Storper; Venables, 2004. and conferences seek to mobilize. Economic geographers Storper and
Venables have distinguished four key aspects of face-to-face (f2f)
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contacts. First, they argue that thanks to its high frequency, possibility
of rapid feedback and visual and body cues, f2f is an efficient com-
munication technology that allows for the exchange of information
and knowledge that is not easibly codifiable and transmitted through
other means. Second, f2f contacts provide a way to build trust, rela-
tionships and collaborations between actors. While the later stages of
a collaborative project often involve the exchange of codifiable infor-
mation, which is easier to do through technology-mediated commu-
nications, it is in the early stages where f2f contacts prove essential
to build the trust that lubricates multi-actor collaborations and their
intermittent exchanges. Third, f2f help create social and professional
networks: “[it] gives them the means to become members of a struc-
23
[23] Storper; Venables, 2004, p. 357. tured milieux, to get ‘in the loop’”. Finally, they argue that f2f com-
munication is, above all, a performance that serves not just to transmit

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