In 2023, we made significant strides in providing our clients with a powerful platform designed to foster a true culture of engagement - one that supports more continuous, inclusive, and representative engagement processes across a broader range of policy domains.

Looking ahead, 2024 will be about enabling, connecting, and inspiring local authorities across our network more than ever. We’re aware that more than 2 billion people will engage in elections across 50 countries, including the United States and the European Union, where we primarily work. With report after report referencing eroded trust in government, we know that participatory democracy can play a big role in building it back and we want to help governments invest more in that beyond just their election cycles. 

Some of what we have planned includes templatising use cases to support the initial stages of project launches, and helping local authorities benchmark themselves against fellow peers to measure success and progress. 

Reflecting on 2023, we’ve also started thinking differently about what engagement success looks like and will be focused on creating a delightful resident experience. Our goal is to compile a showcase of 100 examples of engagement excellence, measuring beyond just engagement numbers and instead honing in on the quality of participatory processes (via elements like the quality of input, feedback loops, impact on decisions, and more). We plan to build this out with a nod to the changing realities of governments across our network - with reduced resources and tighter budgets, we understand the need to better communicate the impact of community engagement so that it's supported across organisations.  

Public servants are fully equipped to do excellent engagement with our platform today, and in 2024 we want to tap more deeply into the engagement motivations and barriers at the resident level to unlock the full potential of participatory democracy. We’ll be exploring this through co-design sessions with residents, accountability trackers - and more!