Learning Together: A Morning Focused On Tech Innovations Solving Policy Challenges
On April 28, POPVOX Foundation partnered with the Bertelsmann Foundation to host a first-of-its-kind democratic technology showcase on Capitol Hill titled “Learning Together: Technology Solutions for Policy Challenges.” The event brought together Congressional staffers, international peers, civil society, technology fellows, civic tech builders, and members of the public for networking and inspiration.
“Learning Together: Technology Solutions for Policy Challenges” was cohosted by POPVOX Foundation and the Bertelsmann Foundation.
The goal was to demonstrate how technology can improve the operational efficiency of democratic institutions and spark curiosity and new relationships around unique use cases of innovative tools and the teams behind them.
Technology adoption is essential to improving government’s internal operations. Externally, the use of innovative technology can be a gamechanger in altering how citizens engage within their democracies and the perception of institutional effectiveness and trust. By creating spaces for cross-sector learning in Congress, staff can continue to be exposed to new ideas and tools that can be leveraged by the Legislative branch in keeping up with not only the White House, but also the private sector.
Attendees were welcomed with brief opening remarks before being encouraged to directly interact with a variety of five technology-based solutions that are actively being used to bridge a policy divide or improve communication across communities on the local, federal, and international level. These included the following platforms:
The Cultivate & RANGE Platform: an online foresight tool that crowdsources expert insight to aid transatlantic policymakers in anticipating challenges before they become crises
European Parliament's Together.EU: a showcase of the EU’s digital tools that are actively closing the gap between policy decisions and citizen engagement
StaffLink: a beta AI chatbot developed by POPVOX Foundation and POPVOX.com, demonstrating how specialized AI tools can be custom built for legislative staff to boost capacity
Go Vocal: an AI-powered platform that supports local governments in gathering, analyzing, and responding to community input — ensuring decisions are grounded in real-time, high-quality feedback
Gaming in Policy: a collection of cutting-edge, computer game designs (such as The Fiscal Ship) that communicate complex policy through player engagement to bridge public policy education barriers.
Aubrey Wilson, POPVOX Foundation’s Director of Government Innovation, demonstrates the StaffLink beta
The event showcased technology that inspired attendees through various applications — from spreading information and gaining new insights to supporting civic education and boosting institutional capacity. It was a lively and energetic morning of relationship building and learning, from which key takeaways emerged:
There is a need for more technology showcases of this kind to take place within government. It was made clear from the start of the event that the presenters were there to demo and discuss their technologies, not encourage use or sell. These goals of inspiring the attendees and raising their awareness about the various tools and their use cases were foundational to the success of the event and created an environment of brainstorming and network building. In the end, the technology presenters benefited from the event as much as the attendees, all walking away with insights into some of government's most challenging communication and policy barriers to overcome and how tech can combat them.
Staff need more opportunities to engage with tools that are ‘outside the box.’ From interns to chief of staff, attendees at the event appreciated the time to engage with new technology use cases and brainstorm what is possible. There were no policy-asks tied to this event, and the freedom of attendees to self-select which technologies they wanted to interact with and learn about led to valuable interactions.
There are similar governance challenges being navigated on the local, federal, and international level that technology can help to overcome. Although the showcased technologies represented tools intended for use across a variety of these governance arenas, all five had some element that found purchase and relevance to the congressional staff who attended, demonstrating that there are best practices and lessons to be learned by exposing staff to innovative technology use across government sectors, domestically and internationally.
