Building Sydney's new Engagement Community

What kind of community do you want and need? One that is genuinely yours. So let's build the Engagement Community together.

The Engagement Community is building a community of practice with local meet-ups across Australia. We're helping to create the Sydney chapter, and we'd love to co-create it with you. So we're starting with an event about creativity in community engagement and community building — and let's do that from Sydney's freshest creative space, The Impact Story Lab.

Join the Sydney Engagement Community to explore what community and creative engagement mean to you — because engagement should be fun, and creativity is at the heart of that. We'll look at how we might apply some of these practices to co-create our own community, and how you might use them in your own work. We'll hear from Josh Lerner, founder of the global participatory democracy hub People Powered, and Amelia Loye, founder of Engage2, will host a fishbowl discussion about community engagement, community development, and participation in democracy between elections.

This isn't a night of keynotes. Expect mingling with fresh faces, an informal discussion based on your questions (not prepared speeches), and an activity where you can jump in with your own stories, reflections, and ideas. Come ready to share what's working for you — and leave with a few new ideas, a few new contacts, and maybe a fresh sense of what's possible.

This is also the official launch of Sydney's Engagement Community — so if you've been looking for your people in this space, this is where to find them.

Details
📅 Wednesday 5 August 2026
🕠 5:00–7:00pm
📍 The Impact Story Lab, Sydney, 101 William Street, Darlinghurst  
💵 $15 to cover light refreshments and venue cleaning fee
👥 50 spots available

About Josh Lerner
Josh Lerner is founder of People Powered, a global hub for participatory democracy. He has over 20 years of experience developing, researching, and supporting community engagement programs around the world. He was previously co-founder and Co-Executive Director of the Participatory Budgeting Project, a nonprofit organization that empowers people to decide together how to spend public money. Josh completed a PhD in Politics at the New School for Social Research and a Masters in Planning from the University of Toronto. He is the author of Making Democracy Fun: How Game Design Can Empower Citizens and Transform Politics, Everyone Counts: Could Participatory Budgeting Change Democracy?, and dozens of articles exploring the future of democracy. 

About the Engagement Community
The Engagement Community is a safe space where people doing community and stakeholder engagement work can connect, learn from one another, and support one another's practice.


About this Event
This event has been endorsed as a meet-up of the Engagement Community. Amelia Loye, the founder of Engage2, is organising this event pro-bono.

This is a not-for-profit event, and Digital Storytellers are providing access to the venue for $100, the cost of a cleaning. All other proceed will go towards snacks and drinks that will be served on the night.