Category: Urban Planning

Public Engagement Jackpot | How Your Agency Can Win Big
I was recently joined by the enthusiastic and bubbly Truckee Meadow Regional Planning Agency team, and I’m thrilled to share their amazing success story!! We truly had a great time putting this webinar together.

Learn how TMRPA in Nevada is making its own luck by going online to engage 1000s. This on-demand webinar offers a detailed look inside the strategies that have made them so successful.

The stakes are high in planning for regional growth in Reno, Sparks, and Washoe County. Truckee Meadows RPA reveals the winning strategy for online public engagement! They show the use of resident survey data in action, providing a clear path to game-changing regional plans.

Jeremy Smith shares how TMRPA used public engagement to build broad public support for infill development in core areas to stop the sprawl. Lauren Knox tells us how they used 53,290+ survey data points to inform their 20-year Truckee Meadows Regional Plan.

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Watch this complimentary on-demand webinar to explore effective ways to:
- Foster inter-agency collaboration with unified engagement
- Gamify public engagement to create a great online experience
- Use a multi-phase engagement approach to guide citizens in planning
- Build resident support and buy-in for transformative scenarios
April 25, 2019
[SUCCESS] Celebrating Women Doing Great Public Engagement

Happy International Women’s Day!!

Let’s celebrate the outstanding achievements of women in planning and public engagement. The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #BalanceforBetter. We wanted to take a moment and highlight some fantastic stories of women who are achieving balanced engagement, moving accessibility and mobility forward, and planning more equitable, vibrant cities for us all.

Celebrating Women | Balanced Engagement for Equitable Plans

Beth Alden shares her journey to executive leadership, Liane Miller gives us 5 tips that helped her engage 52% women for the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan, and Jennifer Fix talks about a FEMOPOLIS taking us overseas to visit cities for women, by women. Get inspired by their exceptional stories!

Webinar AICP CM Credit: 1.0

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Public Engagement at All Scales | CMAP’s Winning Recipe

Learn how Chicago’s award-winning MPO is engaging at all scales by collaborating with 284 communities. CMAP Deputy Executive Director of Planning Stephane Phifer, Associate Outreach Planner Katanya Raby, and Senior Planner Lindsay Bayley take us inside their local approach to online engagement for OnTo2050.

Webinar AICP CM Credit: 1.0

Hear from CMAP

Online Public Engagement Playbook

Liane Miller tells us how she engaged 5,100+ residents online to help inform and shape the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan, the first locally-focused comprehensive transportation plan. Watch this on-demand webinar to learn how America’s #1 boom town is planning inclusively for the city’s transportation future!

Webinar AICP CM Credit: 1.0

Learn more with Liane

Beyond Facebook | How DOTs Go Online for Real Input

Social media works for sharing information, but let’s get real. Social media can’t collect quantifiable public input for your transportation plan. Find out how Joann Mitchell and Heather Edic with Kinney Engineering surveyed 5,000+ residents online, collecting 80,000+ data points to inform their Glenn Highway project!

Webinar AICP CM Credit: 1.0

Get the scoop

Centralina COG Engages Over 8,350 Residents

Discover how Michelle engaged 8,350+ residents! “We’ve really had robust engagement online. As far as outcomes, being able to do scenario planning and connect the dots between people’s values and the types of land uses they thought were important was tremendous for our region.”

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Discover How Micheal Baker Wow Their Clients

Watch this 3-minute clip on the outstanding success Lorna achieved by going beyond public meetings to reach thousands online. “We’re able to go to decision makers and show them ‘we got this much input, and these were the findings.’ This gives them more confidence to tell us that they’re ready to move forward.”

Watch Lorna’s clip

March 8, 2019
[SUCCESS] MetroQuest Success Team in North Carolina

I’d say most of our clients are dealing with challenges around mobility, the environment, and driven by a desire to make their own communities more livable and resilient.

We’re so excited to have the opportunity to welcome all the North Carolina MPOs and RPOs into the MetroQuest family! Some of us had the chance to meet them face-to-face and discuss the amazing public engagement projects we’ll be working on together this year. I traveled with our CEO, Mike Walsh, to Charlotte, Asheville, Kinston, and Raleigh to provide an overview of MetroQuest, as well as to facilitate hands-on training sessions.

Getting to teach our users in person is always a treat for me and having so many in each room, at every session, was absolutely incredible!

You could feel the crowd buzzing with every public involvement project we discussed, with tips and ideas being shared between all the MPOs and RPOs. I always love having the ability to put a face to a name, especially in this case with so many faces. I can’t wait to continue our discussions and work alongside these amazing people in their public engagement quests.

Being in-person meant that we were able to have all the new users create their own test surveys to explore the MetroQuest tool, and explore all the awesome ways they can use it on public participation projects of all scales. Being able to not only demo the software, but also to see how people are using it for the first time and answer questions right away made a huge difference. These users are already progressing quickly!

There’s a vast array of planning project types coming in North Carolina, from community plans, to highway development projects, to active transportation networks, and beyond. We can’t wait to see the amazing insights we can help all these groups gain with MetroQuest surveys.

These ambitions speak directly to my passions that I try to advocate for in my own community. I see MetroQuest as being one way to help empower better conversations around community and how we move around the globe. I am lucky to be able to work with like-mind clients who value the voice of the public.

February 15, 2019
[WEBINAR] Inside CMAP’s Award-Winning Public Engagement Process
I’d say most of our clients are dealing with challenges around mobility, the environment, and driven by a desire to make their own communities more livable and resilient. These ambitions speak directly to my passions that I try to advocate for in my own community. I see MetroQuest as being one way to help empower better conversations around community and how we move around the globe. I am lucky to be able to work with like-mind clients who value the voice of the public.

CMAP has built a national reputation as a leader in public engagement. This on-demand webinar offers a detailed look inside the strategies that have made them so successful.

For the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, award-winning comprehensive plans involve public engagement at all scales, collaboration with 284 communities, and a Local Technical Assistance program that’s admired nationally.

Join CMAP Deputy Executive Director of Planning, Stephane Phifer, Associate Outreach Planner, Katanya Raby, and Senior Planner, Lindsay Bayley as they take you inside their local approach to online engagement for OnTo2050 – their comprehensive regional plan to improve quality of life and economic prosperity for 8.5 million people. Learn how CMAP used a multi-phased approach to online engagement for a variety of local plans, including the downtown Aurora Master Plan.

Watch this complimentary on-demand webinar to explore effective ways to:
- Engage inclusively to build inclusive plans
- Uncover the ideas, hopes, and concerns of residents
- Take a multi-phase approach to online engagement
- Think both locally and regionally for collaborative planning
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Here what participants are saying about the webinar:

“One of the best webinars I’ve seen. Very applicable to my work in municipal planning.”
“Very useful information that others can use as well for their efforts. tackles a common issue with planning projects.”
“Great presentation on challenges of comprehensive public engagement, as well as several examples on strategies to do it successfully.”
Watch this on-demand webinar to get inspired!
February 7, 2019
[SUCCESS] Celebrating This Year’s Public Engagement Success Stories

Congratulations to all of the planners and public participation professionals who achieved outstanding public engagement this year! With MetroQuest surveys, you collected millions of data points to inform better transportation and urban plans to create better places for us to live, work, and play.

As we approach the holidays, we love to celebrate great engagement!

Let’s take a few minutes unwrap some of this year’s outstanding success stories with our friends Lorna, Ken, Michelle, and Jeffrey …

Lorna & Ken at Micheal Baker Wowed Their Clients

Watch this 3-minute clip to share in the outstanding success our friends Lorna and Ken have achieved this year, going beyond public meetings to reach thousands of residents for their clients. “MetroQuest allows us to very efficiently and cost-effectively get a lot of input – big numbers! That’s good for us and it’s good for our clients,” Lorna, congratulations to you and your team!

Centralina COG Engages Over 8,350 Residents!

“We’ve really had robust engagement online. MetroQuest has been versatile for us and helped our communities to grow and prosper,” congratulations Michelle! Your team engaged over 8,350 residents and collected more than 91,950 data points. Play Michelle’s interview in this 3-minute video clip.

City of Peterborough Engages 3,800 Residents!

“The power of MetroQuest is the ability to get the representation of our population. On some of the surveys, we’ve had over 1,300 respondents. Getting that through just open houses is not possible,” congratulations Jeffrey! Your team collected meaningful input from 3,825 residents to inform your Official Plan update. Celebrate in Jeffrey’s success with this 2-minute clip.

You can explore many more success stories here. Happy holidays from your friends at MetroQuest!

December 21, 2018
[WEBINAR] Transforming Public Apathy to Revitalize Engagement with Dave Meslin

There are very few rock stars in the field of public engagement … so that makes Dave Meslin something of an anomaly.

Once you hear Dave Meslin speak in this on-demand webinar you’ll understand why his TED Talk on apathy and public engagement has over 1.7 million views!

Apathy is all around us. Most people have become disengaged not only from politics, but also from the government agencies that make decisions that directly affect their quality of life. Increasingly, leaders are asking themselves “How do we boost public participation?”

Join me with TED Talk celebrity, Dave Meslin as we explore proven techniques for building a culture of engagement. We try to encourage everyone to recognize apathy as a web of barriers that reinforce disengagement – and show how together we can work to dismantle the obstacles to revitalize public participation.

This in-depth journey combines humor with many examples of best-practices. The strongest cities have learned how to tap into the collective creativity, passion, and knowledge of their constituents. This webinar charts the course.

This presentation appeals to all public engagement and planning professionals as well as staff and leaders with planning agencies. For professional planners, APA AICP CM credits are available for watching the on-demand recording.

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Here are some comments from participants:

“Exceptional analysis of the challenges of public engagement. Great ideas!”

“Quite possibly the most beneficial webinar I’ve ever attended. The speakers were both very knowledgeable on the topic.”

“Great presentation, very engaging, and it helped me step back from the day-to-day to re-think about planning topics from the citizen’s viewpoint.”

“Outstanding examples of how to improve public participation.”

“This was an excellent session! It might be the best session I’ve ever attended, including in-person sessions! Great content!”

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December 17, 2018