We’re feeling energised as we zoom through the first month of the new year. That’s because we can see what’s ahead, and we’re excited about the possibilities. Are you ready to set sail with us? We’re celebrating what’s been achieved in partnership with people just like you so far, while setting our sights on facilitating more important conversations in more places and having even more positive impact on more communities. We’re ready to embrace where engagement and deliberation are going, are you?
A message of thanks to you - our clients, participants, partners and friends - and hope for what’s ahead. As we head towards the end of a big year of big conversations, our team shares what they’re grateful for, their biggest highlight of 2023 and what’s really lighting them up when they think forward to the new year ahead.
Meet the newest additions to the MosaicLab team: Belinda Lowing and Fox Gillen. Both Belinda and Fox have long career histories that span across interesting and complex roles that have included facilitation and engagement in many forms. Learn more about these two and gain some insights into who they REALLY are through their answers to our fast five questions!
Ever wondered what makes our facilitators tick? Meet the newest additions to the MosaicLab team: Jody Kingston and Aaron Bosch. Both Aaron and Jody have fascinating, diverse backgrounds and have come to MosaicLab and facilitation via interesting pathways. Find out what they love about their work, what impact they hope to have and how they answered a list of fun and probing questions that we like to call The Telling Top 10...
Four language interpreters. Child-minding. Recruitment challenges. Birthday cake and a lot of laughs. These are just some of the unique highlights of our work with Quit Victoria and VicHealth in 2022 on a project to reduce tobacco-related harm in public housing. This case study takes a detailed look at how MosaicLab supported this process with a residents’ panel and sense-making workshops. All to drive improved, long-term outcomes for community and public health.
AI is both wonderfully amazing and exciting and fun, and worrying, overwhelming and scary…..and it’s coming towards us at a pace that our brains are finding hard to reconcile. In this article we’re exploring some of what’s coming up for us so far around using AI. Including how our natural, human biases are coming into play, the risks and opportunities we’re identifying and the three key principles we see as critical going forward.
Deliberative engagement aims to build trusted decisions. That’s only achievable if the people impacted by the outcome have access to information about the process. This isn’t as easy as telling your communication team to send out a media release or publishing a few social posts telling your community the panel or jury is happening. Your communication approach needs to be thoughtfully planned, aligning communication and engagement efforts and ensuring deliberative principles aren’t compromised.
We’re feeling energised as we zoom through the first month of the new year. That’s because we can see what’s ahead, and we’re excited about the possibilities. Are you ready to set sail with us? We’re celebrating what’s been achieved in partnership with people just like you so far, while setting our sights on facilitating more important conversations in more places and having even more positive impact on more communities. We’re ready to embrace where engagement and deliberation are going, are you?
A message of thanks to you - our clients, participants, partners and friends - and hope for what’s ahead. As we head towards the end of a big year of big conversations, our team shares what they’re grateful for, their biggest highlight of 2023 and what’s really lighting them up when they think forward to the new year ahead.
Did you visit our carnival stand at the recent IAP2 Conference? If so, you might feature in this post! And if not, here’s your chance to fight the FOMO and have an insight into the bean bag toss fun (and really cool dancing) that happened. We also have some super tips for you from IAP2A Chair Tony Clark around increasing accessibility and inclusion in engagement (spoiler - it’s not always easy, but progress is better than perfection). And we share our program highlights. Let’s dive in!
Deliberative democracy experts and practitioners from across the globe recently descended on Copenhagen for the 6th annual Democracy R&D Conference, ready to explore this years theme ‘Let’s Give Democracy An Overhaul.’ Our directors and co-founders Nicole and Keith were there to soak up new ideas, share learnings from our delivery of more than 40 deliberations in Australia, connect with like-minded people from around the world and deliver a facilitating deliberation masterclass. Couldn’t be there? Never fear. They’ve shared their insights and top takeaways from an event they’re calling a “supernova of deliberative democracy”.
Victorian councils - don't delay your Asset Plan engagement! Thinking you might rush it through after council elections? If so, it could be time to reconsider. Want to meet Local Government Act requirements, build a plan your decision-makers can stand behind and avoid risks? Then it's almost time to start planning your engagement process. This monthly myth explores the risks of cutting corners, ways to make the most of this golden opportunity, a solution for working around council elections and how to determine the right scale for your deliberative engagement process.
Have a big issue that’s just right for deliberation, or a project that’s crying out for genuine engagement? Struggling to get it over the line with decision-makers? We know how hard it can be to get the buy-in you need. But it doesn’t have to be a battle. Learn how to engage your decision-makers effectively and convert them into champions for your process. Come and join us for a free one-hour webinar in April to receive insider tips on how to gain greater support from this important group of stakeholders.
The MosaicLab team enjoyed three days of stimulating discussion, catching up with old engagement friends and making new ones plus a bit of dancing and spinning the prize wheel at the recent IAP2 Australasia conference in Melbourne. We were humbled to take home two awards and one highly commended mention at this year’s Core Values Awards.
Making processes accessible for everyone is something we all strive for in the engagement sector. Most people naturally think that this accessibility is most easily achieved in face-to-face sessions where you can see or hear the interpreters. However, in this blog Q&A, we hear directly from two interpreters and two participants about the many accessibility advantages (and some disadvantages) to online workshops that are worth considering.
