Tips for presenting to large audiences:
1. Use a large screen
Have you ever been to a presentation where 60 or more people are forced to look at one of those wobbly 3-legged, 8-foot-wide screens? You know the ones that always have creases in them? If your presentation is worth showing then it is worth seeing […]

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By Bill Lennertz, AIA
Last week I conducted an in-house training with Dan Burden, a seasoned charrette veteran with the consulting firm Glatting Jackson. Dan proposed what was to me a radical idea: let the people facilitate themselves. Dan regularly runs small table exercises at public meetings like the ones described in previous NCI newsletters. NCI […]

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Public meetings can sometimes be seen by opposition groups as an opportunity to undermine a project by calling its validity into question. It is important that a skilled facilitator lead meetings with all of the tools and techniques to handle difficult meetings at his or her disposal. The first task for a facilitator is to […]

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The final charrette public meeting has the potential to create a wave of public support that can carry a project through the inevitable obstacles to its implementation. It is the high point of the charrette, the culmination of many days of hard work by the charrette team and stakeholders. The level of expectation and energy […]

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The outcome of the first charrette public meeting can greatly affect the success of a charrette and should therefore be well planned and facilitated. The overall goal of this first meeting is for participants to gain a complete understanding of the project and how they can be involved throughout the charrette. They should leave with […]

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A common public meeting technique, and one of the most ill-received is to have people standing in line behind a microphone waiting to ask a question or make a comment. The people waiting in line are not listening to the speakers ahead of them or the responses given. People in line become impatient and as […]

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The most important element necessary to ensure broad participation throughout the charrette process is the well-executed public meeting. Potential project supporters often do not attend meetings because, in addition to being busy people, they have had the all-too-common experience of attending a poorly-run public meeting in the past. It is important for the charrette organizer […]

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