More than 120 people from across the world Zoomed in for the online launch of MosaicLab's new book Facilitating Deliberation - A Practical Guide.
Representing a diverse range of sectors and backgrounds, participants joined in from Belgium, Spain, Italy, the UK, USA, Brazil, Israel, New Zealand and across Australia.
“Citizens’ assemblies are a way to get hard jobs done. They have transformed the way that Irish people live their lives.
They have successfully contributed to the delivery of marriage equality and abortion, plus many other areas such as political reform and climate change.”
The Hon. Jay Weatherill, former Premier of South Australia, and Art O’Leary, former Secretary of Ireland’s Convention on the Constitution, were keynote speakers at the event.
Mr O’Leary spoke about what it takes to have hard conversations inside government, while also recounting the story of how a late-night phone call from the Prime Minister 10 years ago catapulted him into the world of citizens assemblies.
Mr Weatherill spoke frankly about how to embed deliberative democracy principles in everyday political life – and that doing so can force a necessary shift away from a standpoint of “announce and defend” and towards “debate and decide”.
AN EVENING FILLED WITH FASCINATING CONVERSATIONS
Couldn’t make it? No worries! We’ve got the inside scoop below including a recording of key parts of the event and a free resource summarising all the best bits of the deliberation discussion.
FREE RESOURCE - ideas and insights from the night
With so many great minds in the room at the launch, we couldn't miss the opportunity to gather up the wisdom shared and summarise it all into a free resource.
WATCH THE BOOK LAUNCH recording
Check out the recording of the launch below and gain insights into the world of deliberative engagement from the perspective of decision-makers, leaders, facilitators and others.
The recording starts at the keynote speakers’ section of the program.
some highlights from our incredible speaker line-up
“I can safely say that deliberative democracy has not only assisted me in my career, it has probably made my career.
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We were fortunate to have leading thinkers in the deliberative democracy space gather to support our launch and actively take part as speakers in a ‘Speed Dialogue’ process. Every participant had the opportunity to speak directly with and pose questions to two of these special guests in a series of small group conversations run on the night.
“Every one of these deliberations that we facilitated have taken our breath away in terms of the capacity of everyday people to create sound recommendations, the trust that builds between sponsoring organisations and their communities, and the transformation that can occur for those everyday people, our deliberators.
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Our esteemed speakers brought thought-provoking ideas to the evening. At the close of proceedings they each shared a ‘five-word story’ summarise their final messages to the group.
There was no doubting Sortition Foundation Director Brett Hennig’s opinion on the importance of making deliberative democracy the norm, rather than the exception. When asked to sum up deliberation in a five-word story, he repeated the word “institutionalisation” five times.
Carolyn Hendriks spoke about bringing participation into policy making in all manner of ways; Iain Walker discussed the value of deliberative processes and how pithy, clear messages benefit others and Lucy Parry highlighted the value of integrity in all deliberative practices and processes.
More five-word deliberation stories
Nicole Hunter, MosaicLab: “Pick something hard, be courageous.”
Kimbra White, MosaicLab: “Long-term work needed on polarisation.”
Art O’Leary: “Let the people decide.”
Carolyn Hendriks: “Building legitimacy and support.”
Janette Hartz-Karp: “Be innovative, provocative, supportive of one another (and stay with it).”
Jay Weatherill: “Mass opinion versus public judgement.”
Lucy Parry: “Insights on impartiality are insightful for integrity.”
Thank you for your contributions, time and insights
We are deeply grateful to our fascinating and highly esteemed list of guest speakers who attended: Art O’Leary, Jay Weatherill, Oliver Escobar, Lucy Parry, Brett Hennig, Janette Hartz-Karp, Lyn Carson, Iain Walker, Carolyn Hendriks.
free BOOK excerpt
Take a free sneak peek inside the covers of Facilitating Deliberation – A Practical Guide with our free excerpt, featuring the foreword, introduction and table of contents.
“This is like finding a timeless, treasured recipe book, based on firm principles and extensive experience, documented in everyday language, replete with pictures, stories and notes in margins.”
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