Emma is Co-CEO of Australia’s leading deliberative democracy company – democracyCo. In this role she designs, and project manages large and complex engagement projects.

Emma’s strengths are her ability to quickly and deeply understand her client’s needs and objectives, enabling her to customise engagement processes that consistently achieve and exceed her clients desired outcomes.

She has an exceptional ability to support governments in building genuine collaborative relationships and partnerships with key stakeholders.

Emma’s commitment and passion to raise the voices of all citizens within the democratic process is one part of the driving force behind the success of democracyCo. This vision is foundational in ensuring that democracyCo is a national leader in engagement.

Emma’s background is in public policy, having worked at the highest echelons of the public service in South Australia and abroad. Emma has an unparalleled understanding of the workings and challenges of government having worked across many different areas of policy, inter-governmental relations, politics and in Parliament.

Between 2010-2014 Emma headed up the South Australian Government’s centre for community engagement– the Participation and Partnerships team.

Under Emma’s leadership the team was recognised by the United Nations, receiving a second placing in the category “Fostering participation in policy making through innovative mechanisms”. Her team also received an award from IAP2 International for best practice community engagement and a commendation from the Future Gov 2.0 awards for leading use of social media bey government in Asia Pacific and was recognised nationally for the best open data initiative ‘Unleashed’.

She led the development of a policy called “Better Together” which acts as a guide for public servants in the State government on how to effectively and successfully engage the community. Emma was a political adviser to the State Government in SA between 2005 and 2007. She also worked for the Upper House of Parliament in NSW running parliamentary inquiries, in the United Kingdom for the National Health Service and headed up a policy team within Cabinet Office negotiating agreements with the Federal Government in the areas of education, training, housing and Aboriginal affairs.

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Citizen engagement in policy-making- raising the citizens’ voice

Date and location TBC

Worldwide there is an increasing trend towards citizens wanting to have a voice in how they are governed. This has seen the emergence of online tools designed to raise the voices of individuals, build communities of similar thinkers and ultimately influence the agendas of government.

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Engage better

Date and Location TBC

Engage better is a short burst generic session which will provide a snapshot and a ‘taste’ of good engagement principles. For some, it will provide all they need to know, for others (particularly policy and communications teams seeking to achieve reform / achieve a social licence for change) it provides an introductory course to inspire participants to further explore the benefits of collaboration, co-design and deliberative practice in public sector.

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