David Dickinson - Fujitsu, UK

Biography
After 20 plus years of working as a senior educationalist in the public sector and a further 10 with Fujitsu, David Dickinson is now managing consultant, advising on current procurements in both the central and local government sectors, but also working on foresight and futures strategies. He works out of the Research Centre in the unique "knowledge mill" of Manchester's OneCentralPark which is home to three universities, 33 business incubators and a college of further education.  David chairs the advisory board of the university's policy research centre (PREST)  He is an advisor on a number of programmes: the FISTERA (Foresight into IST European Research Areas) with the Institute for Prospective Technology Studies; the national "Signposter" eportfolio and careers online service (which goes live in the UK in September) and for the Department for Education and Skills the "National Knowledge Architecture" and Innovation Unit "Next Steps" programmes.  His particular area of interest is personalisation and information engagement in education and community regeneration.

Abstract
David will be sharing what he believes to be the principal challenges and barriers to both the public and private sectors as they seek to achieve government policy aspirations of personalisation and information engagement. Rather more optimistically, he will also give examples of how these challenges and barriers might be overcome.

Carol Hayward - Bristol City Council, UK

Biography
With a background in communications and website development, Carol started working at Bristol City Council on e-democracy projects in April 2004, specifically as Bristol started its involvement with the Local eDemocracy National Project.

She has been involved with a number of e-democracy activities, both nationally and locally, and is starting to work with a range of partners in Bristol to provide an integrated and sustainable framework for future development.

Abstract
Bristol City Council has a history of online engagement, starting with the development an online database for all the council's consultations called Consultation Finder in 2002. With higher than average access to the Internet in Bristol, the opportunity to try new online approaches followed and lessons were learned about how to market and promote online consultation activities and how to successfully combine online and offline methods.

E-petitions were introduced in September 2004 using software and guidance developed by Napier University. This has seen a steady increase in use since it's launch with mixed use by Councillors and citizens on a wide range of issues, including one on recycling plastics with nearly 5000 signatures.

Bristol's e-panel for ongoing online consultation was launched in January 2005 to provide a way of engaging more local citizens and opening up consultation opportunities to people who live outside the city council's boundaries but who still have a stake or interest in the city. This provides a way for citizens to interact with each other, raise topics and questions and give them more say in how the consultation is run.

Local Democracy Week has provided an opportunity to bring young people and Councillors together online through the activity 'I'm a Councillor, get me out of here…' Feedback from Councillors, teachers and young people has been positive and this has proved a successful way of finding out what issues and concerns young people have.

Bristol City Council has also commissioned evaluation and research in to e-democracy activities and is continuing to learn from its successes and failures in this fast-paced and relatively new field of e-participation.

John McAleer - South West Regional Authority, Ireland

Biography
John McAleer is the Director of the South West Regional Authority, Ireland. He has worked in the Irish Local and Regional Government services since 1972.  He holds a Primary Degree in Public Administration and a Masters Degree in Government and Public Policy, from the National University of Ireland, University College Cork.

John has led a wide range of European projects, particularly in the fields of Information and Communications Technologies, he has also worked for many years as a part time lecturer in Government and Politics, at University College Cork.