The Tools for Community Design and Decision Making conference was held in November, 1998 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It concentrated on learning about the features of about a dozen currently available or under development tools and developing a set of design principles that tool providers should strive to meet. Conference participants recommended identifying one or two model projects and working with the federal government to fund tools development as the most effective ways to advance the state of the industry.

TCDDM I was a full-day discussion at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin among representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Energy Commission, Chattanooga Institute, Sustainable Racine and McKeever/Morris. 

This first conference identified the need for further conversations among tool providers and between tool providers and those who are applying them in on-the-ground projects to share knowledge and advance the state of the field.  The next conference, TCDDM II, was held in Albuquerque, NM the following year.