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I think we can agree that the types of people who show up to public meetings are not very representative of the general population. This observation raises an important question. When we design our public engagement process, who should we be targeting? The keenest and most motivated participants are easy. They will show up no matter what. Unfortunately, there’s few of them and they usually hold...

Increase engagement and save time and money with higher returns Public engagement budgets seem to be shrinking while expectations are heading in the other direction. Now that some of the online engagement tools have reached maturity, they can be the most cost-effective way to meet your community engagement targets. It’s no secret that traditional public meetings can be labor intensive and costly. A single public meeting can...

The next generation of community engagement: blending high-tech and high-touch public involvement We need to rethink our entire approach to public engagement. The 1st generation of public engagement, version 1.0, was dominated by traditional public meetings. Rent the hall, buy the muffins and see who shows up. The issue with these is that you just end up getting the same ten people showing up to your events....

The five benefits of engaging a larger, broader audience Online public engagement tools are giving project leaders even more ways to reach out and gather public input. With so much change happening it’s useful to take stock and ask ourselves why we do this. What’s the payoff of better community engagement? What does ‘better’ engagement even mean? Let’s start there. When we say it we mean getting...

How Online Outreach to Seniors Has Changed The online landscape has changed so significantly in the last 5 years that we have had to drastically readjust how we engage seniors through the internet. Historically this 65+ demographic has been the hardest to engage, but recently they are becoming one of the most accessible groups online. Where were seniors engaging before the internet? Traditionally, a high percentage of workshop...