What does this event cover
Join us for an engaging forum on AI for Democracy Professionals.
As artificial intelligence rapidly becomes part of everyday work, democracy professionals need to understand both the opportunities and the risks. This interactive session will explore practical applications of AI in democratic services, governance, and public participation, while also addressing key issues around privacy, public trust, and responsible use.
Hear from experts and practitioners, learn what councils are doing now, and take away practical tools and insights you can apply in your own organisation.
This is the first session in a new Democracy Professionals Forum series, developed in response to feedback from the sector. Sessions are planned to run every two months focused on areas of high interest to the sector, such as government reforms, good practice guidance, and emerging issues.
What to expect
This session brings together a strong mix of expert and practitioner perspectives, including legal, privacy, council, and practical AI guidance.
Explore three key themes for democracy professionals:
- Risk and mitigation
- Practical tools
- Future focus
Learn about:
- AI risks and how to manage them
- Practical prompting for agendas and minutes
- How councils are already using AI
- What the new Biometrics Code means for responsible technology use, privacy, and public trust
By the end of the forum, participants will have:
- clearer judgement about where AI may help and where caution is needed
- practical prompting techniques they can adapt for their own work
- better questions to ask when AI tools are proposed or used
- examples from councils and experts to help benchmark their own approach
- a peer connection with others navigating similar issues
- a stronger understanding of how privacy, biometrics and responsible technology governance connect to public trust
Participants will leave with practical ideas to test, stronger confidence to engage in AI conversations inside their own council, and a clearer sense of what responsible AI use looks like in democracy practice.
Who should attend?
If you work in democratic services, governance, elections, engagement, or public participation, this is a timely opportunity to hear from quality speakers, ask better questions, and take away ideas you can apply in your own work.
Note: This session is open to council staff only.
Programme overview
Fri 21 Aug 2026 9:00 am - Programme
9.00am Welcome
Carol Hayward, Auckland Council – Chair of the Taituarā Democracy and Participation Reference Group
9.10am Risks and mitigation for democracy professionals
Michelle Dunlop, Senior Associate, Simpson Grierson
Governance, safe use and key risk questions
9.30am Useful Tools and Prompting
Joanne Dow, Lead Facilitator, Frank Group
- prompting AI for agenda creation
- prompting AI for minutes based on transcript; breakout room discussion 20 min (breakout groups of 4 reflect and share together)
- wrap-up discussion and Q&A 10 min
10.30 Morning Tea
10.45am What are people doing now?
Vivienne Ong, Committee Advisor, Environment Canterbury
A case study and discussion
11.00am Biometrics Code and what it means for councils thinking about AI
Representative from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner
Practical implications of the new Biometrics Code and responsible AI use
11.40am Key messages and next steps
Carol Hayward, Auckland Council – Chair of the Taituarā Democracy and Participation Reference Group
12.00pm Close
Your facilitators and guest speakers
Michelle Dunlop
Michelle is an experienced commercial lawyer specialising in data protection, AI and technology matters.
Michelle regularly drafts and negotiates commercial contracts for technology transactions for both customers and suppliers across a range of industry sectors, including large-scale technology procurements, ‘as a service’ arrangements, data licensing arrangements and technology licensing contracts.
Michelle has expertise in advising clients on privacy, data protection and cybersecurity issues in the development and deployment of new products and services, including connected car services, biometric and digital identity verification tools, satellite communication services, machine learning models and generative AI tools, drones and facial recognition technologies.
Before joining Simpson Grierson, Michelle worked in-house for a leading AI technology company where she advised on a variety of contracting arrangements as well as regulatory and compliance issues affecting new and emerging technologies.
Joanne Dow
Joanne spent 16 years working in the public sector prior to joining FrankGroup, at the Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand Police, and in Crown Research Institutes. Much of Joanne’s policy work had a focus on interagency collaboration and stakeholder engagement. With years of experience as a diplomat, she has a strong grounding in relationship management and interpersonal communication and enjoys teaching people from diverse career backgrounds. Joanne’s introduction to using AI came while working at Scion and Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research. She has been an active user of large language models for the last two years, in particular to help with research and analysis.
Carol Hayward
Philip Shackleton
Philip joined Taituarā in September 2025, as Principal Advisor, Sector Readiness.
He brings over 20 years of experience, and relationships in local government and the public sector.
His career includes 10 years in senior roles with councils and more recently 7 years as Principal Policy Advisor with Local Government New Zealand. He has most recently worked in leadership roles at Waka Kotahi and at EECA where he was Development Lead in the Standards and Regulations Team. Philip’s expertise includes policy development, regulatory analysis, stakeholder management, and project and programme delivery.
In his role as Principal Advisor, Sector Readiness, Philip is committed to supporting the Sector Readiness Team develop tools and resources that help the sector prepare for and successfully implement new legislation and policies.
