The Social Pinpoint Learning Centre
2020 was a landmark year for both global digital engagement and The HiVE team. Our users achieved remarkable outcomes for their communities and accelerated the practice and adoption of digital engagement into 2021.
To celebrate and reflect on the current state of the industry, we hosted our first-ever user conference in March 2021.
The conference theme From Resilience to Innovation recognised the effectiveness of digital engagement in responding to the immediate and unexpected challenges of 2020. More importantly, it focused on how the lessons learned can be carried forward to drive permanent and lasting innovation in community engagement.
A selection of inspiring speakers and our expert user community members shared their stories and experiences in 2021, and their perspective on what the future holds for the digital engagement industry.
You can catch up on all the action and view recordings of the sessions below.
Cindy Lenferna de la Motte (Head of Customer and Community) and Adam Smith (Co-founder) welcome you to the 2021 HiVE User Conference. Adam talks about upcoming features planned for the product roadmap along with other initiatives for the coming year.
Cindy Lenferna de la Motte (Head of Customer and Community) shares her perspective on the key trends that will drive digital engagement practice in 2021 and beyond.
Key talking points:
Dr Audrey Lobo-Pulo (Founder Phoensight) shares insights into how she sees digital technology supporting deliberative processes of engagement.
Key takeaways:
Hannah Duncan-Jones (Director Policy and Strategy - Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions - State Government of Victoria) discusses her experience in creating the State Government of Victoria's (Australia) Local Government Act 2020 which enshrines the concept of deliberative processes into the legislative framework.
(Hannah starts at 25:36)
Key questions posed:
Valli (Director) is a placemaking thought leader, webinar guru and co-design specialist who knows how to mobilise a local support base and facilitate outcomes that people trust.
With over a decade of experience inside Local Government leading placemaking and engagement teams, backed up by a decade within leading edge placemaking consulting firms – Valli knows how to deliver social impact and economic outcomes in main streets and activity centres.
Valli shares placemaking examples that have been inspired or supported by digital engagement practices and innovations. Special reference was made to what has been possible in our cities during 2020 even with Covid restrictions on face-to-face engagement.
Sophia Robison (Neighbourhood Planner)is the Project Coordinator for the 10-year plan of Pittsburgh’s University District and created standards for public engagement following a year-long public process and numerous training with the International Association for Public Participation. She most recently led the City’s COVID response to public engagement by bringing on Harvest DP’s The HiVE to host a citywide engagement portal called EngagePGH.
Sophia explores the City's recent journey of digital engagement on Engage Pittsburgh, and shares her perspective as a Millennial urban planner, on the role of digital engagement in creating participatory processes for important city projects.
Rachel Oporto (Network and Advocacy Manager) and Margaret Chiu (Communications and Storytelling Manager) provide their insights into how digital engagement is effectively used by a not for profit to strenghten the food system of a diverse region via Engage SDFA.
Key discussion points:
Somphors Vorn (Creative Engagement Officer) has been working within the digital industry for over 15 years. With a background in web design and digital production within the media and advertising industry, she is now utilising that experience to innovate CBCity's engagement practices.
Working as Canterbury-Bankstown's Creative Engagement Officer, she specialises in digital engagement, managing Council's Have Your Say website whilst supporting traditional engagement methods with digital technologies.
Anston Ratnayake (Community Engagement Officer) has been passionate about community engagement throughout his working career. He is a communication and stakeholder engagement professional with proven experience in community consultation, media management and government relations.
Somphors and Anston share the creative ways they are using to engage citizens on their Have Your Say site. They discuss the Council's philosophy to innovation and creativity and how this approach flows through to their digital engagement practise and projects.
Sarah Corry (Community Engagement Co-ordinator) develops and rolls out the Council's community consultation strategies across all areas of the organisation. Her focus is to build internal capabilities and drive a culture of two-way communication and collaboration between citizens and Council to build a successful city into the future.
Sarah explores how they used their Collaborate Canada Bay channel to quickly respond to the challenges of Covid-19 while they were emerging. They showcase their online business hub and economic recovery
initiatives that help the community through the early days of the crises.
Sarah discusses how The HiVE been able to support the organisations digital engagement ambitions and deliver some unexpected outcomes.
Gilbert (Founder of Village Well) is recognised as a leading voice in creating great places for people. He has worked with over 1,000 cities, towns, main streets, universities, property developers, government organisations, and communities over the past 25 years; crafting a powerful integrated approach to creating vibrant, resilient, and loved places.
Gilbert shares stories of possibility, optimism, and opportunity from community-based projects focussed on recovery and rejuvenation.
“The wisdom lies in the community” | empowered citizens directly participate in the decisions affecting their lives communities and local ecologies.
Talking points:
Derek Heric (Leader of the Engage Resource Unit), Marcie Dupuis (Public Engagement Planner) and Martin Kemp (Engage Team Supervisor) discuss the lessons learned of the past few years with Engage Calgary. They share their story of how the Covid-19 crisis sparked an organisational pivot to digital engagement and their subsequent transformational journey.
Melissa Cordy (Digital Engagement Lead) is an emerging digital engagement specialist and trailblazer. She currently leads digital engagement for Melbourne Water and is at the forefront of digital engagement design, incorporating new immersive technologies and emerging techniques like Gamification as part of Melbourne Waters Next Generation engagement approach.
Mel started her journey using the HiVE in late 2017 and has since built the profile of Melbourne Water YourSay Platform and embedded digital as a core part of Melbourne Water’s engagement practice.
Mel discusses Melbourne Water's award-winning Next Generation Community Engagement Program and how digital engagement has been effectively used in their exciting and innovative projects on their Your Say channel.
Melbourne Water was named IAP2 Australasian Organisation of the Year 2020. They received international recognition for their industry-leading approach to community engagement - winning the coveted International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Australasian Organisation of the Year Award.
Natalie McGlone (Coordinator of Community Engagement) is an interdisciplinary Urban Planner and trained Facilitator with skills in strategy, project management, and community engagement.
Her portfolio experience includes the planning and implementation of complex planning projects involving multiple stakeholders and public participation including urban master plans, structure plans, infrastructure plans and more.
Natalie shares the city's remarkable journey from community engagement underdogs to digital engagement heroes, and how they did it over such a short period of time. They also discuss the foundational work they are doing to ensure that everyone in Council is receiving digital engagement training, and the distributed authorship approach used on their Conversations Moreland channel.
To further elevate and innovate our focus on creating the best-in-class software solution dedicated to community engagement, we have decided to rebrand The HiVE as Social Pinpoint with an exciting update to the Social Pinpoint brand to match!
Community engagement is an ongoing process of collaboration and co-learning. When we evaluate our community engagement initiatives, we give ourselves the opportunity to measure our deeper impact and make improvements for future projects.
With the right action plan in place, we can ensure we are connecting with our community on an appropriate level to enhance public decision-making.
