EWRC 2017: first thoughts & resources from #participatEU

A couple of weeks ago I organised ‘Building a Regions & Cities Community of Practice’ (#participatEU) at the European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC 2017), for which I also managed the blogging competition which brought “EU SuperGirl” (aka Madeleine Kay) to town.

I thought I’d bring everything together in one place for this edition. Normal curation service will return in November.

Before I get started, a huge shoutout to Davide from Perceive Project and Claudio Nichele (@jihan65), who both live-tweeted the workshop so well: 

The Regions & Cities Community of Practice was extremely well received: only 10% unlikely to get involved.

While widening the audience through policy participation is a more ambitious and unproven idea:

• a third were Likely or Certainly to organise a regional workshop - more than enough to pilot-test the approach
• another 36% are open to the idea - plenty of room for expansion if successful.

Workshop Report

This post provides all the resources from the workshop: the video, (almost) all slides, plus links to the example communities we explored:

TL;DR Conclusion: while the polls showed more than enough support for piloting both ideas, the audience was self-selected. Rigorous research recommended. 

Communications: thinking differently

If, like me, you lost track of the number of EWRC speeches appealing for more outreach to young Europeans, you might find the #EUinmyRegion blogging competition relevant (When EU SuperGirl came to Brussels), particularly as one of the winners went home to get the EC-funded project she covered onto the BBC:

Background

Finally, three posts written while preparing the workshop:

• Seeking examples of real participation in EU policymaking: Some key questions regarding public participation in EU policy
  
• The limits of public participation in policy: How the ‘Future of Europe’ process helps identify some Success Criteria for public participation.
  
• Should we put machines we don’t understand in charge of public policy? AI is increasingly being used to support public participation in policy. While they offer a lot, they could invisibly skew policy if used carelessly.