The Meetings were co-organized by different institutions such as Décider Ensemble, the National Commission of the Debate Públic (CNDP), the European Metropolis of Lille or the Ministry of the Ecological and Solidarity Transition of France among others. The International Observatory of Participatory Democracy (IOPD) collaborates as a partner at this Conference.
More than 700 participants from all over France: elected officials, civil servants in municipalities and other local authorities, consultants and academics shared and debated on democratic innovations in the service of the territories.
The IOPDorganized a workshop on Thursday afternoon, entitled "Looking Ahead: What Culture of Participation are in Other Countries?". Adrià Duarte, coordinator of the IOPD Technical Secretariat, facilitated this round table, which included as speakers with Giovanni Allegretti researcher of the Centers of Social Studies of Coimbra (CES) in Portugal and Director of the Independent Authority for the Participation of the Tuscany (Italy), Nelson Dias President of the In Loco Association of Portugal and World Bank Consultant for Participatory Budgets, Dominque Ollivier President of the Montreal Public Consultancy Office (OCPM) and Michael Donalson Coordination and Planning Advisor Strategic Plan of the City of Gavà (Spain).
Giovanni Allegretti presented the experience of Bologna, Italy, with its participatory budget and Citizen Innovation Laboratory.
Michael Donalson made his presentation by comparing two participatory processes in similar cities with different methodologies and results, the cases of Rubí and Gavà in Spain. Comparative table of the two presented experiments
Mrs. Dominique Ollivier presented the work of the Office of Public Consultation of Montreal (OCPM), and specifically a difficult process of consultation, because of the pressures of the various actors involved in this case. This was the case of Pierrefonds West. The OCPM and the commissioners responsible for this project had to think of a more innovative methodology and actions to develop this consultation.
Finally Nelson Dias to talk about the participatory budget in Portugal presented the case of Cascais at the local level and the three participatory budgets launched at the national level: the national participatory budget, the participatory budget in schools and the youth participatory budget.