This Saturday we have over 80 people booked up to come to the Political Innovation event in Edinburgh at the weekend, with the topics of conversation being shaped up at our uservoice site. The week afterwards (20th November) we’re convening at NICVA for the Belfast event (book your place here). In both cases the political context is similar. There are important elections coming in May for the Assembly and the local councils.
At the moment the top three conversations for Belfast are:
– How do we address the growing democratic deficit in our governance?
– Is there a way around the obstacles that block the emergence of a post-sectarian centre-left party?
– Use of Participatory budgeting as a confidence builder for politicians in decision making
And of course there is the opportunity to come and help shape up the new Slugger Awards categories in time for the new Awards time slot of January.
There are currently 17 topics and more are being added every day. Come over and vote on your favourites and get them to the top. Comment and fill out the programme for each one. Or propose your own session and grab some mind space for your own favourite idea/innovation.
Aside from all of this, this event is a great opportunity for politicos and social innovators to meet and thrash through a set of common problems. The more problems the merrier. We can’t promise any direct solutions will come directly out of our deliberations, but it is an important opportunity for those on the hill to come out of the bunker for a day and engage directly.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty