The reports, thoughts and reactions from the first major participatory budgeting conference in Scotland are now available online.

The conference brought together almost 200 people across two days in October to learn about participatory budgeting (PB) and see how it can help shape democracy in Scotland and beyond.

Dr Oliver Escobar from What Works Scotland was one of the keynote speakers. He introduced the findings from the newly-published Review of First Generation Participatory Budgeting in Scotland, highlighting that at least £1.75 million has been invested by PB projects in Scotland with 179 individual projects being funded this way.

The review, commissioned by What Works Scotland, examines the existing evidence about PB in Scotland to gain insights to support the future leadership and delivery of participatory budgeting.

The other keynote speakers were Pauline Véron, Deputy Mayor of Paris, France, and Carly Colquhoun & Darren Deans from Young Movers for Change (YoMo).

Day one of the event saw almost 200 delegates bringing examples of PB in practice, exploring some of the challenges and opportunities of PB, and taking part in a range of workshops, including a session by What Works Scotland on facilitating dialogue and deliberation.

Day two was the related UK PB Network’s ‘fringe conference’, with a wide range of workshops across focused on citizenship, dialogue and democracy.

This conference was held in partnership between PB Scotland, the Scottish Government and UK PB Network and organised by the Scottish Community Development Centre.

See the report, the videos, the tweets, the presentations, and more on the PB Conference website.