Over the past two weeks, InnovateUS and the Reboot Democracy team, in partnership with the GovLab and the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, have convened a public workshop series exploring what it really takes to make public participation work. Not symbolically. Not performatively. But meaningfully, as a mechanism that connects civic voice to public decision-making and follow-through.

As we prepare for our third session this Tuesday, with at least seven more to go, it’s worth pausing to reflect on what the series has taught us so far: participation doesn’t succeed or fail based on technology alone. It succeeds when design, capacity, and civic power are aligned, rebuilding the connection that goes from public participation to decision-making and to implementation.

Workshop 1: Why Public Engagement Led by Beth Simone Noveck & Danielle Allen

This opening conversation set the stage by asking the most fundamental question: why do we engage the public at all?

Drawing on decades of practice and scholarship, Beth Noveck and Danielle Allen made the case that participation delivers three democratic goods: better information, stronger legitimacy, and greater freedom. But unlocking those benefits requires reconnecting the broken chain between voice, decision-making, and implementation.

Allen introduced a powerful metaphor: democratic institutions must be upgraded by linking three vertebrae—citizen input, institutional decision-making, and implementation—into a responsive spine. The goal of the series, she emphasized, is to strengthen that spine with the thoughtful integration of both digital and analog tools.

This first session helped clarify a foundational idea: voice is not enough. Effective participation requires an organic connection between input, decision, and action.

Read further reflections from Agueda Quiroga (InnovateUS) and Sarah Hubbard (Allen Lab)

Workshop 2: Different AI Horses for Different Courses: Matching Tools to Purpose  Led by Greta Ríos & Nikhil Kumar

The second session focused on one of the most practical and misunderstood choices public professionals make: selecting a participation platform.

Greta Ríos and Nikhil Kumar walked participants through People Powered’s updated Guide to Digital Participation Platforms, emphasizing that platform choice is never neutral. A good fit can build trust and lead to impact. A poor fit can derail engagement and deepen cynicism.

The session introduced a guide for evaluating tools based on accessibility, transparency, scalability, and cost, but also on institutional readiness and community context. As one participant noted, “you’re not choosing software, you’re making a governance choice.”

This session helped build on the first by exploring when and how AI can support that participatory spine, under certain conditions. It framed technology not as a solution in itself, but as one piece of a broader design strategy rooted in purpose, capacity, and clarity.

It also spotlighted one of the most overlooked tensions in civic tech: the disconnect between tools that gather voice and the infrastructure needed to turn that voice into impact. Participation alone doesn’t build trust; it’s what comes after that matters.

Read further reflections from Dane Gambrell (Burnes Center for Social Change and The GovLab)

What Comes Next - Workshop 3: Designing Smarter Engagement with AI Led by Beth Simone Noveck & Dane Gambrell

Tuesday, September 30th at 3pm ET

Register here →

This Tuesday, we’ll take the next step in the journey: exploring how AI can support smarter, more inclusive engagement, if used under the right conditions.

Beth Noveck and Dane Gambrell will introduce a 9-step framework for structuring AI-supported public engagement that is outcomes-driven, values-aligned, and responsive to the communities it serves.

This third session will provide public professionals with a concrete tool to start designing engagement efforts that match their goals, reach the right participants, and generate real impact.

Together, the three sessions form an important arc:

• Session 1: Voice is not enough, we must connect input to decisions and execution.

• Session 2: AI can support this process, but only under the right conditions, with the right tools.

• Session 3: Here’s how to start, using a practical framework to structure effective, AI-supported engagement.

If you’re a public professional working to make participation real, this series is designed to give you the concepts, tools, and frameworks to do it.

Join us to move from reflection to design, and leave with a practical strategy you can apply to your own public engagement work.