In the workshops, participants discussed the findings of the dialogues and considered together what the priorities should be for an evolved consultation process.
Two workshops were run to accommodate participant availability, one as a full day and the second as a shorter evening event. Twenty-eight of the original 44 dialogue particxipants were able to participate. The sector breakdown was:
Education Organisations & Libraries – 6
Creative Industries - 2
Creative Producers - 4
Licencing & Collecting Societies - 3
Public Bodies - 2
Civil Society organisations - 2
Technology Companies - 1
Members of the public – 8
Participants were allocated to small, mixed-sector groups, each of which had a facilitator. Members of the public were give a pre-workshop briefing to ensure they knew what to expect and would feel comfortable engaging with more experienced stakeholders.
The workshops were structured into four different sessions: an introduction where the research team presented an overview of the findings so far, and breakout sessions focused on three broad questions: Who should participate in copyright consultations?; How should they participate?; and Why should they participate?
Participants were given a series of questions to answer during each of the breakout sessions and the findings from the dialogues were used as prompts for them to think about the complexity of each question. The discussions echoed the opinions participants had shared in the dialogues, but the group setting meant they could exchange views, confirm or change their opinions, and come to an agreement about what the most important aspects of change would be.
The discussions that took place in the workshops, and the stakeholder dialogues, revealed four principles for consultation that all our participants agreed upon. In addition, participants identified a number of priority challenges and associated solutions for current consultations.
The discussions revealed that change should be focused on developing a more stakeholder-centric, deliberative approach to consultations, and on an understanding of consultations as a system, rather than a linear process. Based on these insights, we make final recommendations for developing, managing and delivering consultations.