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Video Conferencing Platforms - Which is Best? In a continuation of absolutely never ever mentioning online video conferencing platforms again, Jonno reveals the results of his "which platform is best?" Twitter poll.  Distributed Dialogue - What is That All About? Jonno sheds light on this emerging concept. Judge Jonno - The Letter E This week, Elt researched approaches to public consultation and community engagement in Medieval times, which led him to Lausanne in Switzerland. Jonno presides over their "radically inclusive" approach to public consultation.  We also discovered an interesting course on the subject, offered by the University of Bristol, here > http://www.bristol.ac.uk/english/study/part-time/elce-course/ New Project Launch in EngagementHQ: Highlight of the Week This week we're inspired by the All Age Carers - 2020-2025 Consultation, launched by Cheshire West & Chester Council. Working with the NHS CCG, the Council wants carers of all ages in Cheshire West and Chester to feel valued, empowered

Lockdown Debate with Anna McKeon, Head of Engagement at Traverse, and Jonathan Bradley, Engagement Specialist and Practice Lead at Bang the Table. When lockdown started in the UK, massive policy decisions were affecting millions of lives without the time or ability to properly engage with the public. Traverse utilised EngagementHQ to provide a space for people to talk about the crisis and host rapid online deliberation, useful for research purposes, policy and decision-makers in a range of context. 

 What we’ll cover: -How this completely digital consultation differed from previous consultations -Organisational adoption -Benefits found using the digital-first methodology -How they recruited and involved a demographically diverse public in the discussion -Participant reflections Tune in as Anna McKeon, Head of Engagement at Traverse reflects on deliberative dialogue in the online space during #LockdownDebate.

Despite saying every single week that they will DEFINITELY not mention Zoom or any other video-conferencing platforms, Jonno & Elt open with a new Twitter poll, following hot on the heels of Marmite's crushing victory over Vegemite last week. Coffee & a Cake Client Discussion: Jonno is delighted about the inaugural Bang The Table UK event which brought together existing and new Bang The Table clients from local government, the NHS, Environment Agency and Consultants to share experiences and approaches to online public consultation and engagement using EngagementHQ. New Project Launches in EngagementHQ: Highlight of the Week This week we're inspired by the Sussex Health and Care Partnership project launch in EngagementHQ titled "Sussex Covid-19 BAME Disparity Response Programme" which will involve the community in improving healthcare services to protect BAME communities and address health inequalities. https://yoursaysussexhealthandcare.uk.engagementhq.com/sussex-covid-19-bame-disparity-response-programme?t

Unofficial Battle for the Ashes The Ashes might not be officially being played this summer but Judge Jonno presided over an Ashes battle of his own on Twitter as he launched a controversial Vegemite Vs Marmite poll. What was the outcome? New Project Launches in EngagementHQ: Highlights of the week Dorset Coast Forum Projects https://www.dorsetcoasthaveyoursay.co.uk/ One of the FIRST global EngagementHQ sites to pilot the new cutting edge Bang The Table Appearance Editor functionality. Tower Hamlets Council: Liveable Streets Bow consultation https://talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lsbow Elt & Jonno are super impressed by Tower Hamlets Council's approach to engaging the community and keeping them informed about a multi-million pound borough-wide street and public space improvement programme. Stats of the Week 240% - the percentage increase in the sale of board games in March 2020, year on year, as a result of lockdown hitting the UK. 25,179 - the number of visits on the West Yorkshire Combined Authority -

In an exclusive first for the UK Consult weekly podcast, Jonno and Elt invite the owner of Fan Insights UK, Kevin Rye, on to talk about the crossover between football fan engagement and broader leadership and building trust approaches taken by the football world. Kevin outlines best practice fan engagement and his work with clubs across the UK to identify with fans as stakeholders and parallels between the leadership shown by certain clubs and local government approaches. Failure to listen is identified as a key theme more broadly in public consultation approaches and methodology and Fans' Parliaments go some way to addressing this in the sporting world. Tune in as Judge Jonno presides over Elt's research into Campaign for Real Ale's (CAMRA) approach to community engagement.

With football back in action but no fans in the stands, Jonathan Bradley and Elton Daddow discuss this new normal in sports and how fan engagement can benefit clubs during this time of change. Last week, Judge Jonno challenged Elt to take a deep dive into birdwatching engagement and share his findings. Find out what Judge Jonno thinks about one organisation’s multimedia approach for bird enthusiasts sharing bird sound bites to identify, comment and engage together in an online forum. Project Launch of the Week in EngagementHQ: Your Say South Essex 2050 - Work Advance Consultancy working with the Association of South Essex Local Authorities to engage the communities in South Essex on a range of pertinent issues as they develop a vision and plan working together across government, businesses, residents and the voluntary sector. https://www.yoursayse2050.co.uk/ Stats of the week: Trust in local government and the number 36. Tune in to find out why June 2020 provides such an important statistic for trust i

Join Elton Daddow and Jonathan Bradley as they explore Airport Engagement, digital consultations with impressive returns, and find out what’s coming soon to EngagementHQ! Airport Engagement:  Judge Jonno presides over an approach to community engagement and public consultation taken by a UK Airport. EngagementHQ UK Project Launch of the Week: 
Only a week after launching their Safe Streets for Walking and Cycling project, West Yorkshire Combined Authority has received nearly 1000 public contributions on their interactive mapping engagement tool, Places.
https://www.yourvoice.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/safestreets/maps/safestreets   Stat of the Week: "In 2020, 3.5 billion people don't have access to the internet!" The internet has been a lifeline for millions of people during the coronavirus crisis. This startling statistic brings to light the need for more awareness of this digital divide. World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee brings this topic to the UN. https://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/in-other-new

How does organisational leadership effect community participation, fan outreach, and the success of local projects and sports clubs? With football season kicking off soon, we explore how Fan Engagement is different than general sales and marketing, and what that means for sports organisations. Learn how positive and bold approaches from leadership within the organisation lead to less commercialised outreach, and puts more emphasis on involving fans in improving the program, as well as its impact on community. We also discuss barriers of change and the unique opportunity we have right now to create a better public consultation experience for our communities. As lockdown has changed the way we communicate with each other, a hot topic recently is the idea and genuine experience of Zoom fatigue. As Councils move their public meetings online, we share reasons why effective public consultation is not a Zoom meeting. Projects to Watch: See how these two Councils are conducting effective and inclusive community

Hardwired engagement is being woven into new industries and organisations to create a cohesive environment. We explore how organisations and healthcare programs are using employee and patient engagement to hardwire staff into their organisational culture and keeping people engaged in company mission and vision. With sustainability and wildlife conservation becoming a major topic in the 21st century, we are seeing the importance and impact community engagement has on conservation initiatives. A study in Tanzania found positive ecological outcomes when analysing areas where local community are more involved. Another emerging concept coming out of digital engagement is the idea and strategy of “on your couch engagement.” Technology has enhanced engagement by providing convenience and ease of participation for the public. Participants can view multimedia content to help them understand and engage on topics that interest and affect them. This convenience drives higher participation numbers and improves the qual

Explore examples demonstrating the importance of organisations continuing, or getting back into, conversations and consultations with community and stakeholders in the online space. How do you manage deliberative workshops online? How do you do in-depth face to face meetings with stakeholders online? From fan engagement to resident consultation, organisations across the country are seeing the value of continuous conversations and involvement from their stakeholders. Housing associations are harnessing the power of digital engagement to maintain connectedness with their residents and keep them involved in ongoing decision making during this period of uncertainty. Barking and Dagenham Council have utilised online engagement in the launch of their Be First project, an inspiring and creative competition for children to create art in response to the changes taking place around them. This project has provided families an innovative way to get involved in activities together and create community cohesion outside o

The concept of #NotAnotherSurvey has taken hold in the UK as industries and organisations are utilising technology that can take engagement and consultation to the next level by gathering more meaningful feedback with digital tools designed for open and creative public input. With a number of buzzwords and new terms circulating the industry, we dive into a few that seem to be making an impact and changing the current tide of online consultation.
 -'Rapid Online Deliberation': In-depth and deep engagement online over a short period of time, due to quick decisions needing to be made by local leaders around COVID-19. We have seen deliberative opinion polls created to analyse how attitudes change over the duration of a consultation, executed by launching surveys at the beginning and end of a project. 
 -Building 'Online Communities' has been a common theme this week, predominantly in the education sector, as students and teachers have moved to online classrooms and need a way to maintain a sense of community

The District Council of Yankalilla in South Australia gathered public input as they began planning for the community's future. Using a variety of community engagement methods and one central digital engagement platform, elected officials were able to make more informed decisions by including voices from across the community. What we'll learn from Yankalilla: -Growth of internal buy-in and how elected members became more invested in community engagement -Engaging with youth -How utilising an external engagement facilitator affected the process and benefited community, council, and the engagement team -Making direct mail, social, traditional in-person, and digital engagement work together -How times and locations of community meetings helped drive higher attendance -Building trust and transparency We engage communities for better decision-making, however, along the way it is important to realise, this engagement also builds community and resilience. In this podcast, you’ll hear about friendships being forged

As part of their new training course, Smart Engagement Techniques for the 2020s, Nick Duffin from The Consultation Institute (TCI) has invited Jonathan Bradley, Practice Lead at Bang the Table UK and TCI Fellow, to answer questions and provide insight into best practice digital inclusion and online participation. This podcast is a recording of Jonathan’s candid response. Tune into this podcast for answers to the following questions; 1. What is 'digital inclusion'? 2. Why is digital inclusion so important? 3. Where can we emulate offline qualitative events online? And how? 4. What are the most effective ways of involving people online? 5. What online facilities will young people, the elderly, and the vulnerable use? 6. Are there software packages that incorporate all these things? 7. What should we be looking for in online solutions?

With a real desire to enrich their engagement, Coventry City Council wanted to move on from black-box Survey feedback to a more open way of communicating with their community. They wanted something which allowed a multimedia approach to inform the public with useful documents, photos, and videos. Let’s Talk Coventry became their convenient location where all of their consultations and engagement could live. When discussing Coventry’s project around a new rough sleeping policy, “We have built up a wonderful Q&A where the general public have been asking us tough and searching questions, as well they should. What we have been able to do with that is demonstrate good faith and a willingness to do what we can by answering them in a public way and that is one of the best things I love about the Q&A tool.” James Sampson-Foster, Analyst Engagement Insight Team, Coventry City Council, “The feedback we have received from the public is fantastic. People are reading our strategies that we put up … And they are readin

“It’s the role of government to do what we cannot or should not do alone.” Nick Kittle, Cartegraph. Casey Earp, Bang the Table, and Nick Kittle, Cartegraph, discuss the 5 tenets of High Performance Government and the most efficient and effective ways organizations can positively impact their community. The concept of High Performance Government is the commitment that we make to continue to better ourselves as a government to the people we serve. The 5 tenants of High Performance Government: 1. Building Effective and Innovative Teams 2. Building Efficient Processes 3. Creating Measurable, Actionable Results 4. Doing this all in a way that is clear and accountable to our residents 5. Engaging our Community “We feel that these 5 tenants are the things that allow governments to really elevate and deliver services to citizens in the best way possible.” - Nick Kittle, Cartegraph. What we’ll discuss: -Building a culture of transparency -Establishing Pilot Programs -Productivity & Time Management -Rethinking how

When the City of Marion wanted to gather ideas from their community, the first suggestion was a survey. However, because EngagementHQ can collect participant information (name, suburb, etc) when the resident signs up, it made more sense and provided more meaningful feedback for the City to use the Ideation tool in this instance as they were gathering ideas around one topic. Once they begin gathering ideas, they can then talk to the particpant(s) and expand on the idea making the process much more efficient than a broad question and answer survey. “EngagementHQ has really helped us at the end of a project to close the loop and provide feedback to those that have been involved. Once you close a project you can still update the page.” - Andrew Coulson, City of Marion As organisations become more sophisticated, we are seeing more of a staged approach to engagement within their communities, providing more opportunity for “Early Engagement.” In this podcast, we will take a deeper dive into the various stages

How does Community Engagement compare across US and UK markets and what can they learn from each other? Bang the Table Engagement Practice Leads, Amanda Nagl USA, and Jonathan Bradley UK, dive into the similarities and differences the United States and United Kingdom markets experience when it comes to community engagement practices and results. One has laws protecting the fairness and execution of proper engagement across the country while the other creates policy at a localized level. Tune into this podcast to hear what practices work in varying areas across the world and take away new best practice techniques for your community.

Young Americans have the most to gain or lose when it comes to the fiscal decisions being made today in Congress. America’s debt is around $22 trillion and climbing. This unprecedented debt level threatens the economy young people will inherit, their future earning power, and the vital public and private investments that are key to building a future full of opportunity. Tune into this podcast with Hilary Allen, Up to Us Spokesperson, to hear how she and the Up to Us program are educating and engaging college students on campuses across the US.

An important part of engagement is closing the loop of communication which speaks to the transparency and trust that it creates with your audience. With their Talking Power Newsletter integration, SA Power Networks is able to close the loop and inform the workshop participants and reference group members when post workshop reports have been added to the Talking Power platform. "Looking after around 860,000 customers across the state, we needed a way to touch those people and connect with them, and this provided us with an opportunity to do so." - Jessica Vonthehoff, Manager Stakeholder Engagement & Communications, SA Power Networks SA Power Networks set up a series of reference groups and specialist groups focused on different areas of planning. The creation of a private page for these groups, including unique logins, allowed them to engage more deeply and add value to their interactions. A few of these specialised groups included; -Solar battery technology integrations -Arborists managing vegetation arou

Stéphanie Beauregard, Experte de la pratique à Bang the Table, et Nicole Melanson, Gestionnaire, Communications et services bilingues, à la Ville de Moncton, discutent comment une plateforme d’engagement numérique a permis de créer une expérience de participation citoyenne intéressante dans une communauté bilingue. Jasons Moncton, le site d’engagement numérique de la Ville de Moncton, a pour objectif de: Faciliter les conversation dans une communauté bilingue Sensibiliser la communauté à propos des dossiers municipaux Améliorer l’engagement citoyens dans un espace sécuritaire et respectueux en ligne Accéder à des données et analyser ces dernières pour informer les décisions prises par les décideurs à la Ville Augmenter la portée des événements publics Offrir des options à la communauté afin de participer au moment qui leur convient Présenter les projets et l’information dans un format intéressant visuellement “La collecte de données a été beaucoup plus facile pour nous avec EngagementHQ et également plus co