Our Story

Emergent innovation from an award winning, world-first degree. Supported by experts.

Plott began in 2019 as a university project, developed as part of a capstone subject in the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence & Innovation (BCII) at UTS. The project was facilitated by stakeholder engagement firm KJA, who came to us with the following wicked problem:

“Many people feel let down by the organisations and governments that claim to serve them. Using innovative engagement tools, how can we empower communities to better govern themselves and act on issues they care about?”

Over 15 weeks we explored this complex problem space, interviewing every stakeholder we had access to. We spoke to politicians, engagement specialists and young people – each conversation creating a richer picture of the state of play.

Ultimately, we realised the best intervention in the system would leverage what already works. In this case, that meant designing for better deliberative processes — shifting participants’ mindsets to seek out diverse information and challenge their internal biases before making a final decision.

The Plott prototype has since been trialled in public engagements for Sydney Airport, as well as being showcased at the Sydney Facilitators’ Network and Spark Festival 2050 Emergent event. Input from facilitators and these events is actively shaping the way we are further developing our approach.

We are continually improving Plott to adapt to the emerging challenges for civic and professional engagement in our global present.