Media Room
Can Online Public Engagement be Diverse?
Spring 2019 – The use of online pubic engagement platforms to support planning projects has grown from a few early adopters to a standard component of many planning outreach projects. Early on most agreed that online engagement is an effective way to reach younger people who have been traditionally difficult to reach. But can it be more than that? Read More ⟶
TxDOT Engages 6,600+ Citizens with MetroQuest
December 1, 2018 – “Because informed input is the greatest kind of input, the tool is designed to first educate the public about a project and then quickly collect their informed feedback. What we’ve seen is that incorporating online citizen engagement has been a resounding success so far.” Read More ⟶
Top 10 Citizen Relationship Tech Companies – 2018
December 1, 2018 – A distinguished panel comprising of CEOs, CIOs and analysts, along with th editorial board have reviewed and shortlisted top companies at the forefront of tackling the CRM challenges. Read More ⟶
MetroQuest: Building Smart Cities with Public Engagement
September 4, 2018 – “With MetroQuest, cities can engage thousands of people across a broad demographic, while obtaining informed input and actionable results in support of their planning and investment decision.” Read More ⟶
Top 20 Smart City Companies – 2018
September 4, 2018 – It’s curcial to create a master plan or a roadmap to build a smart city. While developing a smart city framework, an overall plan of the city is the critical step that covers every aspect, from public safety to transporation to utilities. Read More ⟶
Facing Contention: 21 Tips to Detox Public Engagement
March 8, 2018 – Forces are aligning to increase polarization and tension in public dialog, and planners are increasingly caught in the middle. A recent workshop with 100 engagement experts resulted in a free eBook to help planners detox their public involvement. Read More ⟶
The Great Transportation Wormhole: Are We Ready for Autonomous Vehicles?
November 7, 2017 – Transportation planners are on to something big and, for the most part, they are keeping it to themselves. The future is a relatively small fleet of shared, electric, self driving vehicles, and it’s coming fast. Are we ready? Read More ⟶
The Wisdom of Engaging Nervous Cyclists
March 13, 2017 – It was clear to the City of Toronto that engaging less confident cyclists that make up 60% of the population, yet seldom come to community meetings, might be the key to dramatic mode shifts in the city. Here’s how it happened. Read More ⟶
Why Bother with Community Engagement?
December 4, 2016 – 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. Read More ⟶
How Community Engagement Can Restore Trust in Government
September 8, 2016 – Trust between the public and government agencies is low, and democracies are paralyzed without it. How can community engagement help restore trust? This post outlines the challenge and a process for solving it. Read More ⟶
The 3 Most Common Community Engagement Mistakes
July 5, 2016 – 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. Read More ⟶
6 Trends in Online Community Engagement: the Good and the Bad
May 6, 2016 – With the constellation of civic technologies, like online community engagement platforms, growing quickly, it’s important to recognize the positive and negative consequences of new practices in community engagement. Read More ⟶
Community Engagement Highlights from APA 2016
April 14, 2016 – As I do every year at the APA National Conference, I did my best to catch as many community engagement sessions as possible. Here are highlights, takeaways, and the common threads I noticed this year. Read More ⟶
Is Face to Face Community Engagement Dying Out?
March 28, 2016 – With disruptions at public meetings on the rise and a growing number of online engagement tools to choose from, is face to face community engagement destined to die out? What’s at stake if we let that happen? Read More ⟶
What I Learned When an Angry Group Destroyed My Public Meeting
March 14, 2016 – Introducing the Fiasco Files—a lighthearted look at those times when things went sideways in community engagement. This Fiasco File tells the story of an angry and vocal minority group and the havoc the raised at a public meeting. Read More ⟶
Tip of the Iceberg: Seeking Real Accessibility in Community Engagement
February 23, 2016 – Do modern accessibility regulations go far enough to ensure fair access to all community members for public engagement activities? How can we design our planning processes to reach the broadest demographic? Read More ⟶
3 Digital Tools for Engaging Public Input
January 5, 2015 – Public meetings have their place — and they have their drawbacks. More governments are relying on useful apps to harvest ideas and feedback. Read More ⟶