New to the #notwestminster network? Here’s a potted history of our activities so far, to help you understand what kind of thing we do. Ideas for new conversations, connections and practical activities are always welcome.
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Notwestminster annual event archives
- Notwestminster 2020
- Notwestminster 2019
- Notwestminster 2018
- Notwestminster 2017
- Notwestminster 2016
- Notwestminster 2015
Activities list
- 26th February 2021
We hosted an online get together for members of our network: What’s next for Notwestminster? Participants shared reflections about being part of Notwestminster, discussed current projects and areas of interest, and shared suggestions for what we might do in the future.
- 15th February 2020
Notwestminster 2020 – our sixth annual Notwestminster event brought together people who are enthusiastic about local democracy. We had workshops, Lightning talks and an Ideas Bazaar, followed by some drinks and some plotting.
- 14th February 2020
Notwestminster x PechaKucha 2020 – we held our latest PechaKucha evening of fast-paced talks. Our participants talked about their experiences of local democracy and shared other reflections, including: How no act of kindness is ever wasted, Local community ownership, the tribulations of standing for elected office, and how two people can be better than any committee.
- 14th February 2020
Democracy Solutions Day – Dave Mckenna hosted our 2020 Maker Day event. We explored Liberating Structures techniques, uncovered your most pressing issues for local democracy and worked together on topics chosen by participants.
- 16th February 2019
Notwestminster 2019 – our fifth annual Notwestminster event brought together over 80 people who are enthusiastic about local democracy. We had workshops, Lightning talks and an Ideas Bazaar, followed by some drinks and some plotting. Check out our Best of Notwestminster 2019 page for ideas and pledges, live notes, videos, photos, slides and lots more.
- 15th February 2019
Notwestminster x PechaKucha 2019 – we held a PechaKucha evening of fast-paced talks. Our participants talked about their experiences of local democracy and shared other reflections, including holiday slides from North Korea and an investigation of what makes a exemplary public servant, looking at Columbo.
- 15th February 2019
Democracy Maker Day – Involve hosted our 2019 Maker Day. Together we explored what role deliberative democracy can play in solving challenging local issues and giving local citizens a say over the decisions that affect them. You can find some links in our Best of Notwestminster 2019 highlights.
- 17th February 2018
Notwestminster 2018 – our fourth annual Notwestminster event brought together over 80 people who are enthusiastic about local democracy. We had workshops, Lightning talks and an Ideas Bazaar, followed by some drinks and some plotting. Check out our Best of Notwestminster 2018 page for ideas and pledges, live notes, videos, photos, slides and lots more.
- 16th February 2018
Notwestminster x PechaKucha 2018 – we held our latest PechaKucha evening of fast-paced talks. Our local democracy advocates shared examples of democracy in action, such as Wisdom Councils, a fun look at council mottos, campaigning stories, research about lowering the voting age, the Greatest Movie Ever Made about Democracy, and lots more. Thanks to our friend Brent Woods at the Media Centre, you can listen to many of the presentations: PechaKucha Huddersfield, Volume 21
- 16th February 2018
Democracy Maker Day – Democracy Club hosted our 2018 Maker Day. Together we explored decision-making in councils and worked out what we can do to make the decisions that affect us easier to understand, and easier for everyone to have a voice in. We also spent some time thinking about hustings and we gathered some other ideas for improving citizen engagement with voting and elections. You can find some links in our Best of Notwestminster 2018 highlights.
- 11th February 2017
Notwestminster 2017 – our third annual Notwestminster event brought together over 80 people who are enthusiastic about local democracy. We had workshops, Lightning talks and an Ideas Bazaar, followed by some drinks and some plotting. Check out our Best of Notwestminster 2017 page for blogs, videos, photos, slides and lots more.
- 10th February 2017
Notwestminster x PechaKucha 2017 – we held a PechaKucha evening of fast-paced talks with a distinctly democratic flavour. Our local democracy advocates shared their favourite democratic inventions, conversations between dads and daughters about democracy, a year of fire in Newsome, how Sheffield’s tech community responded to the refugee crisis and the complete and utter history of local government. Plenty of food for thought there…
- 10th February 2017
Democracy Experiments Day – Nick Taylor and Loraine Clarke from the University of Dundee hosted a day of exploring how to do Design Experiments for Local Democracy. This included some methods of rapid prototyping, working in teams to develop some ideas chosen by participants, and then putting some of our ideas to the test out on the street. This was a partnership event with the Centre for Public Scrutiny, as part of our Design Experiments programme.
- 15th July 2016
Design Experiments for Local Democracy – we held a gathering in London to kick off a programme of work with the Centre for Public Scrutiny. Design Experiments for Local Democracy is a practical programme for local democracy advocates. We are encouraging people to rapidly test and evaluate new ways of doing local democracy, and we’re supporting each other in doing this. You’re welcome to get involved.
- 13th February 2016
Notwestminster 2016 – our second annual Notwestminster event brought together almost 80 people who are enthusiastic about local democracy. We had workshops, Lightning talks and an Ideas Bazaar, followed by some drinks and some plotting. Check out our Best of Notwestminster 2016 page for blogs, videos, photos, slides and lots more, and keep an eye on our online Ideas Bazaar for opportunities to get involved in the practical work.
- 12th February 2016
Notwestminster x PechaKucha 2016 – we held a special PechaKucha evening of fast-paced talks with a distinctly democratic flavour. Our local democracy advocates spoke about public servants being human beings, devolution in the North of England, our suffragette heritage, whether digital is a good way of improving local democracy (or not), the joy of being a councillor, the missing Godfather film and lots more. It was excellent.
- 12th February 2016
Local Democracy Maker Day – we held our second Maker Day in Huddersfield, as a fringe event at Notwestminster 2016. Digital makers, local government officers, community activists, councillors, open data advocates and others came along to make something together in response to 3 of our Design Challenges for Local Democracy.
- 26th September 2015
Rock and Roll local democracy: It’s a miracle – Imagine that overnight a miracle happens. Local democracy becomes like rock and roll; stripped back; simple; easy to understand; emotional; exciting; and fun. How would you know? What would you notice in your daily life? In the morning? At work? In the evening? Dave Mckenna asked these questions at GovCamp Cymru 2015 and got some wonderful answers.
- 12th September 2015
How are we going to redesign local democracy? – we led a “democracy Cinderella” session at LocalGovCamp 2015, in which we encouraged people not to overlook democracy whilst focussing on service design in local government. We invited everyone in the room to make one wish for redesigning local democracy, and we asked for other wishes via twitter. Here are our #localgovcamp session notes.
- 11th September 2015
Local Democracy Maker Day – we invited digital makers, local government officers, community activists, councillors, open data advocates, hyperlocals and voters of tomorrow to come and make something together in response to 3 of our design challenges. We chose our 3 #LDMaker15 challenges based on the results from our design challenges survey and what our participants had shown particular enthusiasm for. Find out what happened on the day: What we did at our Local Democracy Maker Day #LDMaker15
- 3rd July 2015
Local Democracy Bytes, LocalGov Digital Makers and Democracy Club gathering – having discovered our shared interests, we gathered together in Birmingham and started talking about how we might work together. We agreed to begin by organising a fringe event at LocalGovCamp 2015 and to look for other ways to support each other.
- 26th May 2015
Design Challenges for Local Democracy – we decided to turn our conversations so far into a series of design challenges, to help us turn debate into action. Our first, concise version of the main challenges sparked lively debate on twitter. One thing we all agreed on was there are lots of challenges. In our Design Challenges for Local Democracy – Take 2, we ended up with a list of 19 challenges.
- 29th April 2015
Election Special PechaKucha Night – we live tweeted this Election Special, curated by fellow notwestminster particant Dr Andy Mycock from the University of Huddersfield. As well as reporting on the PechaKucha presentations, we shared our thinking about digital democracy during the elections – with a distinct focus on local democracy. We began our conversations with @DemoClub during the interval.
- 31st March 2015
Different with Digital: Scenarios for a Rewired Local Democracy – Dave Mckenna chaired a session about doing things differently with digital at the Political Studies Association conference in Sheffield. We also live tweeted and live streamed the session so that others could take part.
- 7th February 2015
We’re not in Westminster any more – 80 people took part in our first Notwestminster event, including local government officers, community activists, young people, councillors, academics and digital makers. We shared ideas through workshops, lightning talks, creative activities and our Ideas Bazaar.
- 6th February 2015
PechaKucha Night – this was our first “hustings”, featuring a series of short presentations about democracy and our other interests, in Cafe Ollo at the Media Centre in Huddersfield.
- 5th February 2015
Local Democracy for Everyone – Local Democracy Bytes (@LDBytes) and friends organised a series of events in Huddersfield for anyone who is interested in local democracy, beginning on National Voter Registration Day 2015. Although some of us were already working together on the Rewiring Local Democracy programme (part of LocalGov Digital), this was the start of our #notwestminster network.
We are #Notwestminster 