A support facilitator studying psychology, our first team member based in NSW and a brand new participant recruitment coordinator... meet the newest additions to the MosaicLab team: Polo, Polly and Gus! Learn more about this trio of terrific team members and gain some insights into who they REALLY are through their answers to our fast five questions!
How should we plan for the new energy future while providing affordable services that meet changing customer and community needs? Two representative ‘Voice of the Customer’ panels in Queensland answered this question. Randomly selected, everyday customers deliberated and agreed on recommendations that electricity distributors Ergon Energy Network and Energex used to prepare Regulatory Proposals for the Australian Energy Regulator (AER). Delve into a tale of two deliberative customer panels, and gain ideas and insights you can draw on for your next project.
We believe in supporting emerging and underserved people and communities to have deeper conversations that lead to stronger democracies. ML Giving is the new name of the not-for-profit part of MosaicLab - a banner for the work we do that gives back. We’re focussing on furthering community inclusion and action beyond just getting input and instead moving into enabling local decision-making. Explore the principles ML Giving will operate under, and the kind of projects and conversations we’re supporting.
Jemena Electricity Network has been implementing a comprehensive engagement program for the organisation's 2026-2031 Regulatory Proposal, employing a multi-dimensional approach to allow customers direct influence over proposed future pricing and services. MosaicLab codesigned and lead the facilitation of the process, that included a deliberative panel and brings diverse customer, stakeholder, and industry perspectives into the decision-making process.
As part of the development of Ausgrid's 2024-2029 regulatory submission, two randomly selected customer panels deliberated over a collective 10 full days. The panels, facilitated by MosaicLab and Gauge Consulting, considered how Ausgrid should look to the future while remaining fair to customers today. Ausgrid's three-year engagement process allowed customers to influence what Ausgrid spends customers money on, giving them a rare insight and influence over the cost of electricity, an issue that directly impacts the lives of everyday people.
New data confirming that civic engagement, trust in local councils and belief in democratic processes are enhanced through deliberative engagement has been captured in a MosaicLab report. This new research, which collated data across 10 deliberative projects and involved hundreds of participants, adds weight to the argument that democracy done differently leads to positive impacts and powerful change.
Do you hear the words ‘engagement planning’ and suddenly feel a headache coming on? Maybe you’re simply not sure where to start. Chances are you don’t know about our seven, simple steps to pain-free engagement planning. We’ve created a free guide that you can download right now. It’s a snack-sized taste of our comprehensive, online engagement planning training course.
MosaicLab has had the privilege of working with many Victorian councils over recent months and supporting them to design and deliver deliberative engagement processes. An interesting and exciting element of this experience has been the high level of influence some councils offered to their community around the development of their community visions.
In this article we look at three different approaches. One council that set the level of influence at ‘empower’ from the outset, and two others that accepted their community’s vision statement in full.
We have been in conversation recently with a community member who provided feedback on the experience of being part of a public deliberation. This panel member felt that there was a need for a much greater connection to be made between panel members. This article outlines some activities and suggestions for increasing the connection for a better outcome and improved experience for panel members.
Thanks to the pandemic, MosaicLab facilitators have had over 12 months of running online meetings and workshops, clocking over 300 online sessions! As a result, we now know what works well in this medium and what it takes for people to have meaningful conversations and contributions online. We shares our knowledge of the online meeting world with you through our Virtual Facilitation training course.
Find out more here.
Globally, 1,807 local government bodies, such as municipal councils, have declared a climate emergency within the past 5 years. But making a declaration is the easy part. Partnering with the community to come up with responses to such a momentous and complicated challenge is not something that every council is willing to take on. But those who do will be rewarded with ideas and momentum from the community that council cannot possibly achieve on its own.
In this article we share with you a story of a local council in Victoria who has partnered with their community to respond to the climate emergency together.
In November 2020 when the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Reference Committee held an inquiry into ‘Nationhood, national identity and democracy’ our Managing Director, Nicole Hunter, was there to give evidence about how deliberative processes could improve democracy and restore faith in the democratic process.
