#notwestminster
Got something to say about local democracy?
PechaKucha speakers wanted
On Friday 14th February 2020 we’re hosting our latest PechaKucha Night in Huddersfield. We are looking for people who would like to be speakers on the evening.
A PechaKucha Night is a fast-paced evening full of exciting speakers and topics. As usual, ours will have a distinctly democratic flavour. It’s a fringe event of Notwestminster 2020, a two day event bringing together people who have something positive to say about local democracy and who are up for the challenge of making it work better.
If you care about the place where you live, or if you want to work with others for civic good, we know that our participants will be keen to hear what you have to say. So if you’ve a story to tell, or if you’ve got an idea to share, we’d love to hear from you. We can offer support and advice if you haven’t been a speaker before.
Each speaker will talk for 6 minutes 40 seconds on a theme of their choosing, following a “20 slides for 20 seconds” format. The slides advance automatically, so everyone gets exactly the same amount of time to speak – and you should be prepared to keep going!
At Notwestminster we believe that together we can create a stronger local democracy. We’re always keen to hear from anyone who has ideas, experiences and enthusiasm to share.
Some of our previous talks have included: Local democracy in North Korea (with summer holiday slides), The greatest movie ever made about democracy,”Council mottos: the good, the bad and the utterly meaningless” how Sheffield’s tech community responded to the refugee crisis, regional democracy compared to the Galactic Empire, and “The total and utter history of local government” (which turned out to be quite ambitious in less than 7 minutes).
You can have a look at our Twitter moment from our 2019 PechaKucha to get an idea of what the event is like.
We welcome talks on any aspect of local democracy, community life and other stuff you’re interested in.
Want to be a speaker?
Contact us if you’d like to be a speaker
Want to listen to the talks?
The event will be in Cafe Ollo at the Media Centre on Northumberland Street, from 7pm on Friday 14th February. Please come along to learn something new and be entertained. It’s a fun way to find out what inspires some of our local democracy advocates and to hear about people’s passions and interests. There are always a few surprises.
PechaKucha Night – register now
The Notwestminster PechaKucha Night is organised by the Media Centre in Huddersfield and the Notwestminster network.
Want to speak up for local democracy?
PechaKucha speakers wanted
On Friday 15th February 2019 we’re hosting our latest PechaKucha Night in Huddersfield. We are looking for people who would like to be speakers on the evening.
A PechaKucha Night is a fast-paced evening full of exciting speakers and topics. As usual, ours will have a distinctly democratic flavour. It’s a fringe event of Notwestminster 2019, a two day event bringing together people who have something positive to say about local democracy and who are up for the challenge of making it work better.
If you care about the place where you live, or if you want to work with others for civic good, we know that our participants will be keen to hear what you have to say. So if you’ve a story to tell, or if you’ve got an idea to share, we’d love to hear from you. We can offer support and advice if you haven’t been a speaker before.
Each speaker will talk for 6 minutes 40 seconds on a theme of their choosing, following a “20 slides for 20 seconds” format. The slides advance automatically, so everyone gets exactly the same amount of time to speak – and you should be prepared to keep going!
At Notwestminster we believe that together we can create a stronger local democracy. We’re always keen to hear from anyone who has ideas, experiences and enthusiasm to share.
Some of our previous talks have included: The greatest movie ever made about democracy, a conversation between dad and daughter about democracy, “Council mottos: the good, the bad and the utterly meaningless” how Sheffield’s tech community responded to the refugee crisis, regional democracy compared to the Galactic Empire, and “The total and utter history of local government” (which turned out to be quite ambitious in less than 7 minutes).
Listen to some of last year’s talks
We welcome talks on any aspect of local democracy, community life and other stuff you’re interested in.
Want to be a speaker?
Contact us if you’d like to be a speaker
Want to listen to the talks?
The event will be in Cafe Ollo at the Media Centre on Northumberland Street, from 7pm on Friday 15th February. Please come along to learn something new and be entertained. It’s a fun way to find out what inspires some of our local democracy advocates and to hear about people’s passions and interests. There are always a few surprises.
PechaKucha Night – register now
The Notwestminster PechaKucha Night is organised by the Media Centre in Huddersfield and the Notwestminster network.
Got something to say about local democracy?
PechaKucha speakers wanted
We’re hosting a special PechaKucha Night in Huddersfield on Friday 16th February 2018 – and we’re looking for some speakers.
A PechaKucha Night is a fast-paced evening full of exciting speakers and topics. As usual, ours will have a distinctly democratic flavour. It’s a fringe event of Notwestminster 2018, a two day event bringing together people who have something positive to say about local democracy and who are up for the challenge of making it work better.
So if you’ve got something to say about local democracy, if you’ve a story to tell, or if you’ve got an idea to share, you might like to be one of our speakers on the night.
Each speaker will talk for 6 minutes 40 seconds on a theme of their choosing, following a “20 slides for 20 seconds” format. The slides advance automatically, so everyone gets exactly the same amount of time to speak – and you should be prepared to keep going!
Some of our previous talks have included: a conversation between dad and daughter about democracy, votes for women, the ‘joy’ of being a councillor, how Sheffield’s tech community responded to the refugee crisis, regional democracy compared to the Galactic Empire, and “The total and utter history of local government” (which turned out to be quite ambitious in less than 7 minutes).
We welcome talks on any aspect of local democracy, community life and other stuff you’re interested in.
Want to be a speaker?
Please contact us now if you’re interested in taking part. We’d love to hear your ideas.
Contact us if you’d like to be a speaker
Want to listen to the talks?
The event will be in Cafe Ollo at the Media Centre on Northumberland Street, from 7pm on Friday 16th February. Please come along to learn something new and be entertained. It’s a fun way to find out what inspires some of our local democracy advocates and to hear about people’s passions and interests. There are always a few surprises.
PechaKucha Night – register now
The Notwestminster PechaKucha Night is organised by the Media Centre in Huddersfield and the Notwestminster network.
What is democracy for?
You can try out mobile messaging before, during and after this year’s Notwestminster.
Have a think about this question:
“What is democracy for?”
Send a text starting with NOTWM
then your thoughts
to 07786 205 227
(it only costs the same as texting your friend’s phone)
You’ll get a reply with a link to read other people’s answers.
It’s public but anonymous, so you can be as honest as you like.
Help us to share our text experiment
Please print out a few copies of these instructions and leave them in a cafe, a pub or anywhere else where you live.
Print these instructions on A5 paper (PDF)
Print these instructions on A4 paper, two copies per sheet (PDF)
Where did the question come from?
Our question was asked by Anthony Zacharzewski,
as part of the evidence he gave to the Kirklees Democracy Commission.
Why use mobile messaging?
Participation using mobile messaging has a different feel to participation using social media. On social media we are performing and managing our identities for an audience, often a complicated mix of work, interest-group and personal contacts.
Mobile messaging is often for an audience of one, and we only communicate with a small group of contacts by messaging. This means that when mobile messaging is used as a way for people to take part in civic conversations, it feels anonymous.
This can be very helpful for encouraging heartfelt contributions and for welcoming people who are less confident about speaking up in meetings.
Two councillors in Camden used text messages to try and involve more people in a participatory budgeting process as long ago as 2008.
This is one of the messages they received:
“We are 6 mums and we’d like to plead with you about giving the Winch Project funds so it could carry on the wonderful activities for the children. Please as it is the only chance for all low income families. Please.”
One of the councillors involved said afterwards:
“Using texting definitely led to a net increase in participation in the democratic process. It probably almost doubled the participation in the local area forum vote.”
Thumbprint Camden
Speak up for local democracy – in less than seven minutes
PechaKucha speakers wanted
We’re hosting a special PechaKucha Night in Huddersfield on Friday 10th February 2017 – and we’re looking for some speakers.
A PechaKucha Night is a fast-paced evening full of exciting speakers and topics. Ours will have a distinctly democratic flavour, as it’s a fringe event of Notwestminster 2017, a two day event bringing together people who have something positive to say about local democracy and who are up for the challenge of making it work better.
So if you’ve got something to say about local democracy, if you’ve a story to tell, or if you’ve got an idea to share, you might like to be one of our speakers on the night.
Each speaker will talk for 6 minutes 40 seconds on a theme of their choosing, following a “20 slides for 20 seconds” format. The slides advance automatically, so everyone gets exactly the same amount of time to speak – and you should be prepared to keep going!
The event will be in Cafe Ollo at the Media Centre on Northumberland Street in Huddersfield, from 7pm.
Our previous PechaKucha talks have included everything from whether public servants are human beings and why technology can’t save democracy, to the ‘joy’ of being a councillor and how regional democracy in England measures up to the Galactic Empire. As you can see, it’s a mixed bag, and sometimes challenging.
We’d love to hear your suggestions.
Want to be a speaker?
Please contact us if you’re interested in taking part. Get in touch by Friday 20th January if you can.
Want to listen to the talks?
Please come along to learn something new and be entertained. It’s a fun way to find out what inspires some of our local democracy advocates and to hear about people’s passions and interests. There are always a few surprises.
PechaKucha Night – register now
The Notwestminster PechaKucha Night is organised by the Media Centre in Huddersfield and the Notwestminster local democracy network.
Designing Your Democracy Experiment Day – 10th February 2017
Democracy Experiments Day
Friday 10th February 2017
The Media Centre, Northumberland Street, Huddersfield HD1 1RL
This is a day for anyone who is interested in making a difference to local democracy through practical experiments. It will give participants an understanding of the principles of design thinking and some hands on experience.
Nick Taylor from the University of Dundee will get us started with some key lessons that draw on his experiences with design-led civic technology experiments and community-level hackathons over a number of years. We will then be working on some real life examples brought along by participants, and trying out some techniques and approaches.
This day will be of interest to anyone who is already working on one of the Notwestminster experiments, anyone who would like to get involved or anyone who is interested more generally in design and democracy. Everyone is welcome and it’s free to take part.
Democracy Experiments Day – register now
Design Experiments for Local Democracy programme
Nick Taylor
@nicktaylor3
University of Dundee
Nick Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in the University of Dundee’s School of Art and Design, specialising in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design. His main research interest is the use of technology to support civic engagement in communities, working closely with communities over extended periods of time and deployments of new technologies ‘in the wild’. His most recent research has involved the use of hackathons to support grassroots innovation by bringing together communities with local makers.
Lorraine Clarke
University of Dundee
Loraine Clarke is a research associate at the University of Dundee’s School of Art and Design, with a background in Industrial Design and Human–Computer Interaction. Her research concentrates on physical technology supporting social interactions within groups in public spaces such as community spaces, museums or galleries. Her current research focuses on supporting community innovation utilising digital fabrication and the DIY maker movement.
Dave Mckenna
@Localopolis
Scrutiny Manager,
City & County of Swansea
Dave works for the Council in Swansea where he has been for 20 years. Prior to finding a home with scrutiny he worked in a variety of front-line and policy roles with varying degrees of success. He has completed a PhD with the Department of Political and Cultural Studies, Swansea University. His topic was Local Government and Public Participation.
Localopolis (blog)
How to be a public servant (blog)
Photo of Dave courtesy of Anthony Mckeown.
Ed Hammond
@CfPS_Ed
Centre for Public Scrutiny
Ed leads on the Centre for Public Scrutiny’s work around local accountability. His work has a particular focus on corporate governance within local authorities, but he has also carried out extensive research on policing and community safety, having produced national guidance for the operation of Police and Crime Panels in 2011 and 2012, and research on their first year in operation in 2014.
He is currently leading on Design Experiments for Local Democracy, a partnership programme from Notwestminster and CfPS.
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. The programme is co-ordinated by the Centre for Public Scrutiny and the Notwestminster local democracy network.
