About this Event
Join us on October 6th at Forum Groningen for the SPEAK Up! final conference, bringing together academics, practitioners, and citizens to explore how citizen participation can strengthen cooperation between citizens and government.
The programme will feature presentations and interactive workshops led by academics and civil servants, alongside panel discussions on different approaches to public participation.
The conference will also offer an opportunity to exchange experiences directly with local governments from seven countries involved in the SPEAK Up! Interreg project, representing a wide range of public participation initiatives. Insights, lessons, and challenges from the project will feed into the discussions throughout the day.
Register now, we'll keep you informed final program and details of the different talks and workshops!
See the event-webpage for details and information on the speakers, the talks and the workshops, or sign up for our newsletter for the latest news!
Agenda
🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Registration, doors open
🕑: 10:00 AM - 10:15 AM
Opening and welcome by mayor Roelien Kamminga
🕑: 10:15 AM - 10:50 AM
Keynote by Prof. Laura Smith: From Polarisation to Collective Intelligence
Info: Professor Laura G.E. Smith from Bath University, examines the risks and threats that arise from using digital communication technologies and AI, as well as the opportunities these technologies offer to encourage political engagement and build trust. Key to this is understanding how human psychology and behaviour interact with the affordances of digital communication technologies. She finishes by outlining an empowerment-by-design agenda in which people are kept in the loop, and technologies are used to surface shared ground. This way, technology can serve as infrastructure for cohesion rather than chaos.
🕑: 10:50 AM - 11:15 AM
Coffee break
🕑: 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Celebrating Speak Up
Info: We will showcase the Speak Up results: what makes a citizen assembly a success (panel discussion with partners and the scientific results by Prof Dr. Namkje Koudenburg) and presentation of the Speak Up Online Learning environment by the Hannah Arendt Institute
🕑: 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Lunch
🕑: 01:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Afternoon program with a choice of workshops
Info: Workshops and presentations by Prof. Dr. Kees van den Bos (Utrecht University), Dr Marc Pauly (University of Groningen), Urban Strandberg (International Youth Think Tank), Dr. Marleen Gillebaart (Utrecht University) ,Holger Meyer Højlund (VIA Aarhus), the Sterk Hoogkerk Project and more!
🕑: 03:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Tea break
🕑: 03:30 PM - 04:00 PM
Speak Up: the Legacy
Info: A lively paneldiscussion: how do we make participation and the lessons of Speak Up business as normal, how do we ensure that local governments embrace and adopt participation by design?
🕑: 04:00 PM - 04:05 PM
Wrap up
🕑: 04:05 PM - 05:00 PM
Drinks at the balcony of Groningen, The Nok Restaurant!
Event venue & nearby stays
Forum Groningen, 1 Nieuwe Markt, Groningen, Netherlands
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