How can more people be encouraged to participate e.g. electronic voting, etc.?

To answer that, we think you need to ask yourself two questions – firstly what’s the purpose of the project, and then secondly, who then do you want to involve to achieve the purpose?  For example, if it’s a young people’s pilot – then you want to involve young people and agencies that work with them.  Or maybe the project is in a certain geographical area (e.g. a neighbourhood management area), so you’d want to involve all the people in the area – would that include young people too or is there a cut off age?  Maybe it’s a project with older people – what’s the lower age limit or maybe it’s linked to pension status?  Once you know who you want to involve you need to think about how you currently engage the different groups you want to involve and if those engagement mechanisms are effective.  If so, use them (no point reinventing the wheel).  If not, then some community research and development may be needed with certain groups to understand how best to encourage their involvement in PB.  It may well be that electronic voting will engage with some key groups, and if so, you should consider if that’s an important mechanism for involvement. 

More people can also be encouraged to participate over time.  Word of mouth is very effective.  If participants in the first event enjoyed themselves and see the benefits of their involvement, they’ll tell their friends, family and neighbours.  If they see the projects they voted for being implemented in their neighbourhoods they’ll be convinced that their vote counts and convince others to vote too.