NCI recently had a chat with PR expert Ben Brown about working with social media in public projects and found his following advice and insights valuable.
Ben recommends that if there is a hot political climate surrounding your plan, perhaps you should avoid starting your own project blog. Rather, do some homework to seek out [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Stakeholders'
Working with (not against) Bloggers
January 12th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Categories: Communications/PR · Stakeholders
Tweet, Flick, Whatever: More Help or More Noise?
November 11th, 2009 · No Comments
The topic of social media’s role in public planning processes is a hot one. NCI continues to research and present on the topic as we did at the annual Congress for the New Urbanism in June where Bill Lennertz of NCI and Ken Snyder of PlaceMatters spoke on “Hi-Tech, Hi-Touch Public Meeting Facilitation Tools for [...]
Categories: Communications/PR · Public Participation · Stakeholders
Kids at Charrettes
June 18th, 2009 · 2 Comments
The participation of children in charrettes is a hot topic at our trainings these days. At ASU last week we discussed these major benefits.
Kids can add important content. They are, of course, brutally honest and also quite smart about planning issues.
Their presentations can change the whole tenor of the charrette. Kids very often speak [...]
Categories: Public Participation · Stakeholders
Two ways the NCI Charrette System works for sustainable community design
June 5th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Changing project users mindsets and preconceptions about sustainability is a prerequisite to implementing sustainable design projects in which users take ownership. Charrettes create an immersive, shared-learning environment that promotes a shift in mindsets.
Sustainable projects have a complex set of environmental, economic, and social variables plus a large, diverse set of stakeholders. The NCI Charrette [...]
Categories: Benefits of Charrettes · Stakeholders · Sustainability
Trade-offs of full-time, invited stakeholders v. intermittent, open participation in charrettes
May 28th, 2009 · 3 Comments
I had an interesting discussion with the students at our D.C. training this month. We were debating the trade-offs of workshops in which a select group of stakeholders participate in virtually the entire event participating in the design sessions elbow to elbow with the professional design team.
We talked about the obvious advantages of having [...]
Categories: Public Participation · Stakeholders
Charrettes for the New (Depressed) Economy
December 17th, 2008 · No Comments
Of all the arguments for using the charrette method, none comes into sharper focus in times like these than the bang-for-the-buck advantage. Well-planned, well-managed charrettes can save both public and private sector clients a ton of time and money. But here’s the hitch: To realize the savings, clients have to take on more responsibility in [...]
Categories: Benefits of Charrettes · Charrette Organization and Management · Charrette Preparation · Communications/PR · Consultant Needed · Public Participation · Stakeholders · Trainings/Events
A Piece of Charrette History: The CRS “Squatters”
April 3rd, 2006 · Comments Off
The following piece of charrette history was excerpted from the National Charrette Institute’s publication, The Charrette Handbook, available this summer from the APA Planners Press. It represents a small portion of a chapter on the history and evolution of the charrette and Dynamic Planning processes that contains numerous such case examples.
The evolution of the collaborative, [...]
Categories: Stakeholders
Stakeholder Analysis and Outreach
February 3rd, 2006 · Comments Off
Perhaps the most useful part of the stakeholder analysis is the identification of the “win” for each stakeholder viewpoint listed. Determining the win provides the information necessary to convince stakeholders that they should participate. Presenting the project as an opportunity for an individual to achieve his or her win is a way to create relevance [...]
Categories: Public Participation · Stakeholders
The Importance of a Collaborative Process
March 3rd, 2005 · Comments Off
Do you often have a tough time convincing a project sponsor of the importance of a collaborative process? One of the most important benefits of true collaboration in community planning is ending up with a plan that minimizes costly rework and results in a built project. Everyone suffers when a project in which many people [...]
Categories: Benefits of Charrettes · Stakeholders
The Importance of Confidential Interviews
January 3rd, 2005 · Comments Off
One powerful method for verifying information is to conduct confidential stakeholder interviews. Confidential interviews conducted by a neutral/third party charrette team uncover information that people might not share in a public forum and that local staff cannot possibly know because of their closeness to the project and their history with the area and the people. [...]
Categories: Stakeholders





