This year at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting I had the honor of joining a panel of experts to speak on the topic of community engagement in the age of mobile technology. Apparently the topic caught people’s attention. Despite being one of the final session at the conference, the turnout was excellent [...]
What is the highest purpose of community engagement? Why do some planners go all out to hear from the public? This article dives into these questions based on nine interviews conducted at APA 2016. Community engagement is a required component of planning projects. Some planners take a "check the box" approach and others go out [...]
It’s surprising how seldom we see a breakdown of the cost of public participation across multiple channels or tactics. These breakdowns give a unique window into community engagement that can be extremely useful to agencies trying to create engagement plans and realistic budgets to meet their outreach goals. That’s why we were so surprised [...]
We're creating an ambitious guidebook to answer the question how can we design and implement community engagement to build trust and support? We'd be happy to send you a free copy as soon as it is published. Register to receive the guidebook Providing your email will ensure you receive [...]
Planners, like any other professionals, live in a kind of bubble. Those charged with dealing with the public run the risk of expecting too much from residents as they design community engagement activities. Here are some of the most common mistakes. It's great to focus on the positive and celebrate the best case studies, [...]
Image from book launch event courtesy Hoggan & Associates My interview with Author James Hoggan: 'I’m Right and You’re an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean It Up' Published by New Society, May 2016 James Hoggan has influenced my work for two decades. I find myself quoting his work in [...]
Public Involvement for Transportation Planning at TxDOT On June 15-17, the 2016 Transportation Planning Conference hosted by TxDOT brought together transportation planning professionals from throughout Texas to discuss best practices and review leading case studies in the field of transportation planning. The well-attended Public Involvement panel session was recorded and we are pleased to [...]
One of my pet peeves is how we fill conference programs and websites with the most successful case studies and we don't talk about our most potent learning experiences - when things went wrong. Maybe we just need a safe place to talk about these important learning opportunities. When things go wrong in public [...]
Ensuring that community engagement opportunities are open to all residents is not only the law, it's also good for planning. Incorporating a diversity of viewpoints improves plans, facilitates implementation, and frankly leads to better communities that meet the needs of all residents. Unfortunately too often the accessibility discussion doesn't get out of first gear. [...]
Gamifying Behavior Change: How to Engage Citizens Through Technology Presentation at 2016 Sustainable Communities Conference (Westin Ottawa) In February 2016, over 400 municipal leaders and sustainability professionals gathered at the Westin in Ottawa, ON for the annual 2016 Sustainable Communities Conference. MetroQuest Chief Engagement Officer, Dave Biggs was honored to share the stage with [...]
