Author: Mike Walsh

MetroQuest Acquired By Social Pinpoint
For more than 25 years MetroQuest has been at the leading edge of innovation and best practices for effective, inclusive public involvement for DOTs, MPOs, regional transportation agencies, and firms. Today, we are delighted to announce that MetroQuest has been acquired by Social Pinpoint, a leading provider of innovative solutions for community engagement.

As a provider of a market-leading survey tool across North America, we are aware of the technological, social and communication trends that continue to shape our industry. MetroQuest recognizes the industry is moving to multifunction public engagement platforms that offer more tools and flexibility for customers.

“MetroQuest is a company built on enabling great community engagement outcomes. To ensure we can continue to provide customer value we have been seeking a partner to help MetroQuest evolve from a single tool provider and become part of an industry-leading platform solution. We are pleased to announce that we have found such a partner in Social Pinpoint,” explained Mike Walsh, President and Chief Executive Officer of MetroQuest.

Since 2013, Social Pinpoint has grown spectacularly to become the platform of choice for comprehensive public engagement internationally. With 35+ tools (and counting), Social Pinpoint is consistently investing in its technology so that clients can adapt their approach for every project, constantly grow their capabilities, and stay at the cutting edge of digital engagement.

“Our vision at Social Pinpoint is to create comprehensive digital solutions that cater to the diverse needs of public engagement professionals globally,” shared Craig Chudleigh, Chief Executive Officer of Social Pinpoint. “Through this acquisition, we can offer an integrated platform that combines the best of both Social Pinpoint and MetroQuest, delivering even greater value to our combined customers. We are delighted to take this next step towards achieving our vision and providing customers with the tools they need to foster meaningful connections and drive impactful change in their communities.”

As a forward-thinking company, Social Pinpoint has always been at the forefront of transforming the way communities engage with various projects and initiatives. By combining forces with MetroQuest, Social Pinpoint aims to revolutionize the public engagement landscape, enabling organizations to gather valuable insights, facilitate valuable collaboration, and deliver outcomes that incorporate the diverse perspectives of the community.

MetroQuest established and set a precedent for high-quality and thoughtful digital engagement. Social Pinpoint will continue to carry that legacy forward and evolve the values and principles of MetroQuest to build the next generation of engagement tools.

The integration of MetroQuest’s powerful visual survey with Social Pinpoint’s existing suite of tools will provide an all-encompassing platform that caters to the diverse needs of public engagement professionals. This unified solution will enable users to further streamline the entire engagement process, from initial planning and outreach to data collection and analysis, in a seamless and efficient manner.

Together, MetroQuest and Social Pinpoint remain committed to delivering exceptional customer experiences, and this acquisition is a testament to that commitment. Existing and future customers can expect even greater value from the integrated platform, as it combines the strengths and expertise of two industry leaders.

To learn more about Social Pinpoint, please visit their website: https://www.socialpinpoint.com/

About Social Pinpoint

Social Pinpoint is a leading provider of community engagement solutions, specializing in empowering organizations to foster meaningful connections with their communities. With an extensive suite of digital engagement tools built to enhance public participation, clients can inform decision-making, encourage diversity and inclusion, and eliminate participation barriers to drive better project outcomes.

Social Pinpoint is owned and operated by MySite, a specialized global, software company with a focus on the Community and Stakeholder Engagement space. MySite’s leading solutions of Social Pinpoint and Consultation Manager, a market-leading Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM), help organizations manage their entire community and stakeholder engagement process, from initial discovery to final delivery.

What does this mean for existing MetroQuest clients?

For current clients of MetroQuest, you will continue to leverage the platform you have grown accustomed to and trust. This means, your day-to-day will not be changing, and you will continue to receive unparalleled client service and support.

What is potentially more exciting is that Social Pinpoint opens up immense opportunities to expand your public engagement efforts and align with a comprehensive engagement platform. Some of this innovative functionality includes:
- Surveys: Social Pinpoint already provides advanced survey technology with a large array of question types, customization, and templates.
- Pages: Easily create multiple pages, and sub-pages, with different templates, that all work to seamlessly enhance and blend in with your organization’s brand.
- Smoother Workflows: With Social Pinpoint, you can take advantage of in-built workflows to instantly increase internal collaboration and streamline the approval process.
- Capture Ideas and Stories: Create captivating projects that capture the ideas and stories of your community through effective storytelling and ideation practices.
As a current MetroQuest customer, upon request, you can get access to a full-featured trial site of Social Pinpoint.
July 11, 2023
Celebrating 24 Years of MetroQuest!
This month marks the 24th anniversary of MetroQuest and we’re celebrating with gratitude and joy. We’ve come a long way since our inception in 1997 and I wanted to take some time to share some of our achievements, recognize our customers for the support they’ve provided us with over the years and give a huge kudos to our team in getting us to where we are today.

The origins of MetroQuest: how it all started…

Since first meeting in 1993 as graduate students, Dave Biggs and I have been obsessing about community engagement and how to improve it with technology. In 1997, we founded Envision Sustainability Tools, a software firm devoted to providing the most innovative and effective public engagement solution for urban and transportation planning. In the early days, our small team ran public meetings and set up polling keypads connected to our custom software. As the Internet grew in popularity, we were the first to develop a web-based public engagement platform that broadens community outreach, marking the birth of MetroQuest.

As technology and the software industry have evolved, so have we. From those early keypads to today’s leading SAAS tool, MetroQuest has remained at the forefront of digital public engagement by keeping customer goals top of mind while improving the platform to leverage technology improvements.

After 20 years of extensive experience as consultants with both in person and online public engagement tools, MetroQuest launched its first software as a service solution in late 2016. We started our SaaS business as Version 7 of MetroQuest and just launched Version 8 last Fall. Version’s 1 to 6 are a story for another time.

Success in Public Engagement SaaS Technology

Since January 1st, 2017, we’re proud to announce that:
- 1,254 MetroQuest surveys have been created and launched!
- 785,966 participants have been engaged!
- 20,651,392 data points have been collected!
We’ve also been named a top Technology Innovation by ICT Ready to Rocket for five years and collected awards and nominations from Most Outstanding Community Engagement Platform to Top Citizen Relationship Technology!

Inspired by Our Customers’ Success

MetroQuest’s mission is to deliver great online public engagement experiences that broaden outreach and bring people together to plan better, more sustainable and inclusive communities. Over the years, we’ve had the pleasure of working with government agencies and planning firms across North America that do some pretty amazing things! Here are a few inspiring customer stories that we’re very proud to be a part of:
- Arellano Associates set records for LA Metro. The agency engaged 6,900+ participants online with a diversity that almost perfectly matched local demographics. Check out our case study with Melissa Holguin to learn more.
- The Fairfax County and Franconia-Springfield Parkways survey, launched in October 2018, gathered input from 15,254 residents, the largest number of participants on the previous version of MetroQuest (V7).
- Since our new version launched last fall, the All aboard! Exploring transit options for the Treasure Valley survey engaged 11,700 participants online, the largest number of participants of any MetroQuest survey ever.
- One of the more compelling stories is yongeTOmorrow, a plan to reduce automobile traffic on a key portion of Yonge Street in downtown Toronto. MetroQuest was used 3 times during the planning process: Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3, and collectively attracted nearly 7,500 participants.
We expect to see about 400 surveys created and launched by our customers this year. We look forward to seeing what our customers accomplish moving forward!

A Big Thanks to the MetroQuest Team

To wrap things up, I’d like to extend my appreciation for the amazing work of the entire MetroQuest team. Without your support and dedication, MetroQuest would not be where it is today. The company is truly graced with employees like you – a massive thank you to each and every one of you!

Thank you for 24 special years. Here’s to celebrating the next successful chapter together!
June 8, 2021
[AWARD] MetroQuest Wins 2019 Ready to Rocket Technology Award

Rocket Builders has recognized MetroQuest as a top technology company poised for exceptional growth in 2019.

Thank you Rocket Builders for selecting MetroQuest as a winner for the information and communications technology (ICT) award. For the third consecutive year, MetroQuest has received the “Ready to Rocket” award for consistently achieving outstanding growth. In 2019, we expect to double our growing community of annual subscribers and to grow revenues by 80 to 100 percent.

“After much research into the trends driving growth in the information technology sector, it became clear that MetroQuest is well positioned to capitalize on these trends,” said Geoffrey Hansen, Managing Partner, Rocket Builders.

I would like to personally thank the esteemed panel of judges for recognizing the accomplishments of our world-class team. This award represents the collective achievements of all of our employees. They helped make 2018 a truly transformative year! We achieved 53% revenue growth, with 75% attributed to annual subscriptions to MetroQuest.

The first two months of 2019 have far exceeded expectations, placing us well on track to double our subscriber base this year.

Stay tuned for more great announcements from MetroQuest in 2019…

March 12, 2019
[SUCCESS] A Warm Welcome to 36 Regional Planning Agencies in North Carolina

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has extended its MetroQuest public involvement subscription to include all Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and Rural Planning Organizations (RPOs) in 2019.

A forward-thinking agency, NCDOT confirmed its commitment to exceptional public involvement this month when it extended its annual MetroQuest subscription to include the 18 Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and 18 Rural Planning Organizations (RPOs) in the State.

The whole team at MetroQuest is excited to extend a very warm welcome to all 36 planning agencies. We’re thrilled to have them join the growing MetroQuest community. This month, our friendly and knowledgeable Customer Success Team is travelling throughout North Carolina to meet our new friends in person and to support smooth onboarding.

With an annual MetroQuest subscription, these agencies can launch unlimited educational surveys, engage thousands of people, and analyze public preferences with colorful dashboards. Expect to see outstanding public participation throughout the State of North Carolina in 2019!

“NCDOT has been using MetroQuest public involvement software to support various planning initiatives over the last three years,” said NCDOT Chief Deputy Secretary David Howard. “In leveraging this tool as a key component of our public involvement strategy, we’ve been able to increase the level of public participation and collect significantly more quality data.”

“All MPOs and RPOs in North Carolina will now have a new tool for their own online public involvement,” continued Howard. “Using common technology across all agencies will help create a better, more efficient public involvement process throughout the state.”

We’d like to congratulate NCDOT! Since 2016, the agency has collected nearly 120,000 data points of informed public input using MetroQuest surveys to better support planning efforts statewide. That’s worth celebrating.

“In 2018, we had unprecedented levels of engagement across multiple projects, including nearly 4,600 survey participants for our State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP),” reported Jamille Robbins, Public Involvement, Community Studies, and Visualization Group Leader at NCDOT. Read the NCDOT case study to learn about Jamille’s earlier success →

NCDOT is in good company. MetroQuest online surveys have been used to optimize public involvement by state agencies, including Arkansas DOT, Arizona DOT, Florida DOT, Maine DOT, Minnesota DOT, Missouri DOT, Montana DOT, South Carolina DOT, Texas DOT, and Wisconsin DOT.

Among America’s largest transportation agencies, they’ve used MetroQuest to optimize public participation in the planning of all types of projects, including bike and pedestrian, transit, corridor, and bridge plans as part of their statewide long-range transportation programs.

With 10,500 employees, NCDOT is the largest agency in history to extend its MetroQuest subscription to all regional agencies. We’re seeing a growing trend with DOTs building on their own public involvement success to empower regional agencies.

In 2018, Maine DOT extended its MetroQuest subscription to all MPOs in the state. We hope many other DOTs will take notice in 2019.

January 28, 2019
[AWARD] MetroQuest Wins Top 10 Citizen Relationship Solution Provider Award

Government CIO Outlook has selected MetroQuest as a Top 10 Citizen Relationship Solution Provider.

Government CIO Outlook is a technology magazine that focuses on the trends, challenges, and opportunities for CIOs to deliver technology-driven services and operations. A distinguished panel – comprised of CEOs, CIOs, VCs, and analysts, alongside the Government CIO Outlook editorial board – recently reviewed and shortlisted the top companies at the forefront of tackling citizen relationship management challenges.

We’re honored to win this prestigious award and to have MetroQuest recognized as a vital online public engagement tool for today’s government agencies to nurture better citizen relationships.

With public trust in government under constant pressure, MetroQuest surveys help agencies foster positive relationships by involving citizens in planning for better transportation networks and more livable cities to improve their quality of life.

MetroQuest surveys have been used by hundreds of agencies of all sizes to engage thousands of citizens online. The latest edition of Government CIO Outlook featured an article on the Texas Department of Transportation success story. Learn how the team at TxDOT has used MetroQuest to engage over 6,600 citizens to improve transportation planning and build new infrastructure to meet the true needs of Texans.

“Let’s face it, our attention span is directly proportioned to how interesting whatever we are focusing on at the moment is,” said Jefferson Grimes, Director, Public Engagement, TxDOT. “Online engagement provides the hook, so to speak, needed to capture the public’s attention. Constituents are able to provide input in a meaningful manner and on issues that are important to them and do it quickly, at their own convenience.” Read our TxDOT case study ⟶

We’d like to congratulate TxDOT and all MetroQuest subscribers on their outstanding public engagement work in 2018! We wish you much continued success this year.

January 17, 2019
[SUCCESS] New Calgary Library Opens to Critical Acclaim

On November 1^st the City of Calgary opened the new, much anticipated Central Library. According to the Calgary Herald, the new library is nothing short of spectacular!

“Decades in the making, Calgary’s long-awaited $245-million downtown library opened its doors to the public Thursday, boasting 240,000 square feet of spectacular architecture, four floors of learning spaces and 450,000 new books and collections” (Source: Calgary Herald).

Six years ago, MetroQuest played a role in creating the groundswell of public support that a project of this magnitude requires. Who lead the outstanding public engagement efforts for the megaproject? Modus – an innovative planning, design, and engagement firm and long-time MetroQuest subscriber.

The Modus team engaged 14,000+ Calgarians in a discussion about the future of the Central Library, using a MetroQuest survey to collect actionable public input from over 12,000 of those engaged citizens.

Another MetroQuest subscriber and integrated design firm, Dialog Design was part of the incredible team tasked with designing a beautiful building to fit an odd shaped lot and be a catalyst for revitalizing Calgary’s East Village area. Rob Adamson of Dialog Design said,

“This might be the most significant civic building built in the last 25 years and potentially the most important civic building built in the city for the next 25 years, so as a Calgarian and an architect, it’s a very proud and moving moment for me to see this building finally complete.”

Planners and architects increasingly require public support to put their plans into action. This support begins during the planning phase. Without public support, a bold plan to transform a city landscape may never see the light of day. Michael Brown, CEO of the Calgary Land Management Corporation, said this “project was built over a curving LRT track, on an oddly shaped piece of land that would be tough to sell.”

Calgary’s new Central Library is breathtaking. We would like to thank the 12,000 Calgarians who helped shape the vision for this amazing gathering place for exploration and learning. Congratulations to Modus and Dialog Design for your outstanding public engagement!

November 22, 2018