The 107th North of England Education Conference (NEEC) will be taking place in Blackpool January 5-7 2011.

The conference will give those working on encouraging youth participation the first chance to reflect on and debate what have been some of the most radical shifts in the sector for over a generation with policy advisors, senior decision makers, local authorities, trade unions and other agencies linked to education and children's services.

Attempts at engaging the public in a new way, such as through online crowdsourcing techniques raise a series of questions about how to make this type of exercise more effective; harnessing the best of citizen energy, rather than magnifying the worst of mob debate. Earlier this year, the Open Forum Foundation held a workshop in the US which focussed on this broad dilemma.

[Creating Great Citizen Engagement Software|http://openforumfoundation....

In spring 2010 the Science for All Expert Group produced a report which reviewed the current public engagement landscape, outlined a vision for public engagement with the sciences and laid out a roadmap for future development in the area....

This seminar, run in partnership with Involve and the Office for Public Management, is part of OPM's long-running series of Public Interest Seminars. The seminar will focus on the the future of patient and public engagement in health and how this might work in the face of public health reforms. The seminar will draw upon the experiences of a range of organisations including local authorities, health bodies from the private and voluntary sector and patient groups....

Simon Burall, Director of Involve explains on the Open Democracy website Our Kingdom that although the new government proposal to allow the public to determine how development aid is spent has come under heavy criticism, if implemented correctly, MyAid could harness the knowledge of citizens and help build support for rising aid budgets. Read the full [article here|http://www.opendemocracy....

This online seminar was presented by The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and Involve

Armchair Involvement is an NHS Institute online platform where you can build your skills and review best practice in the field of online health engagement and technology....

Recent work from the Campaign to Protect Rural England highlights that the public needs a greater role in planning decisions to ensure that their environmental and developmental interests in relation to society are met. The main argument is that, for Government to reform the planning system while ensuring environmental protection their focus must be on the assets of the landscape, and the aspirations of members of the public who are impacted by it and who use the space....

The Scottish Youth Parliament has recently launched its biggest ever youth consultation 'Picture the Change' and would like to ask for your support during August and September to help reach as many young people as possible by promoting 'Picture the Change'.
The main purpose of the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) is to represent young peoples' views and communicate them to decision-makers. They are therefore eager to find out what young people in Scotland think of the world around them,...

Urban Forum and bassac have released an interesting new piece of guidance called Local Action: A handy guide for communities working with councillors, looking at how community groups can practically and effectively work with local councillors on projects. Download the report here. This work compliments Involve's Councillor in the Community tool,...

Duty Free Democracy...It seems that the recent Duty to Inform, Consult, and Involve will soon be an ex-duty. Edward Andersson from Involve explains why this is probably the right thing to do: here.