What You Will Learn:
Discover effective strategies to promote your hybrid meeting initiatives. Grasp the nuances of reaching out to diverse community segments, ensuring active participation and fostering a spirit of cooperative governance.
Local governments face unique challenges in community meetings. Learn how to cater to both in-person attendees and online participants, ensuring every resident's voice is heard, and their concerns addressed.
Explore a hands-on case study where the Social Pinpoint platform has been instrumental in a local government hybrid meeting. Witness practical tools and methods that make public meetings more dynamic and responsive.
For community trust, it's crucial that meetings translate into action. Understand how to efficiently document decisions, communicate follow-ups, and ensure transparency in your engagement processes.
[01] Define
What is hybrid engagement?
This is a big buzz word right now. Most of us think about doing a regular public meeting where people can watch via an online video service. But what else can this mean?
What are some common outcomes from "Digital+" engagement tools?
- Reach overwhelmingly younger, broader and more diverse audiences
- Share information more effectively with passive engagers
- Create deeper understanding of outcomes with interactive communications tools
- Increase disability and language access across the board
- Empower project managers with actionable data, more efficient analysis, and remove barriers to follow-through
- Challenge the project-first engagement approach to build cross-project databases and newsletters and leverage new, repeat engagers
Quick Poll
How confident are you in leading hybrid and asynchronous public engagements?
[02] Communicate
Identifying Your Stakeholder Groups
- Who are potential stakeholders?
- Who will be impacted positively or negatively?
- Who NEEDS to know about this?
- Who can or will contribute to this conversation?
- Who could stop this project?
- Who might be hard to reach?
- Don’t forget internal stakeholders!
- Leveraging local influencers & partnerships
- Targeted ads
- Use data-based targeted ads
III. Crafting a Compelling Message
- The power of storytelling: Sharing past successes or illustrating potential outcomes.
- Using clear, concise, and relatable language.
- Making the 'call to action' prominent and motivating.
IV. Visual Aids and Infographics
- Using visuals to simplify complex topics or data.
- The role of compelling visuals in boosting engagement rates.
V. Leveraging Local Influencers & Partnerships
- Partnering with local figures, organizations, or community leaders to amplify the message.
- Co-hosting events or workshops to create a bigger impact.
[03] Challenges
Common Challenges
A hybrid community engagement strategy combines complementary face-to-face and online engagement techniques.
Here are a few easy examples to begin with:
- Conduct face-to-face meetings or pop-up events with the aid of iPads & mobile devices
- Utilize QR codes on physical posters and advertisements on public buses to drive traffic online
- Have an identical survey available for people to fill out offline or via an online tool
- Provide access to online information at libraries, recreation centers, or similar community spaces
- Allow people to participate in discussions even if they can't attend the live public meeting
What are other challenges you're dealing with in designing hybrid engagements?
- Recent
- Popular
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10 October, 2023
Vale says:
Not many of my colleagues are open to using hybrid, they want either all in-person or all digital
10 October, 2023
Anonymous says:
I need to understand the tools to have a successful event.
10 October, 2023
Anonymous says:
I had a client who wanted a hybrid meeting, and they wanted the online audience to be engaged with the discussion that was to happen in the in-person room. The folks online could not hear the people in the room (it was a large ballroom).
10 October, 2023
Lesley says:
Everyone has accessibility to the online technology, link or platform being used and then ensuring that the people online are just as included as the people who are in person.
10 October, 2023
Anonymous says:
Sound is challenge - hearing those in the room and those on line. Having an extra screen for participant faces seems key
10 October, 2023
Anonymous says:
Making sure it's accessible for diverse demographics (age, tech ability, language, disability, etc.)
10 October, 2023
Anonymous says:
Recreating the Open House experience online
Multiple languages
10 October, 2023
Anonymous says:
data analysis, and efficiencies
10 October, 2023
Anonymous says:
facilitating a meeting with only one facilitator, being present for in person folks and keeping virtual folks engaged
10 October, 2023
Anonymous says:
How to moderate discussions outside of face to face meetings ie. discussion boards
10 October, 2023
Anonymous says:
supporting folks who are less comfortable with technology
10 October, 2023
Anonymous says:
Not all communities have internet access or digital resources.
[04] Strategies
Let's consider how you might pull all these examples and challenges of hybrid community engagement into a multi-step plan. We'll pretend you're creating a comprehensive plan for a small community. Your first step is to get feedback on key challenges and opportunities in the study area. You have the following stated engagement expectations:
- You must offer in-person engagement opportunities.
- You must create equivalences in in-person and online engagement experiences.
- Comments collected online will have the same weight as comments collected in person.
- You will seek out participation from commonly under-represented communities and leverage digital+ tools to elevate those voices.
Sample Meeting Equivalency Plan
| In-Person | Digital | Hybrid+ | Equity |
| Public meeting hosted at the town library from 12-2pm on a weekend, at from 6-8pm on a weekday. This meeting will be open house style and include a series of poster boards with quantitative and qualitative questions and a more in-depth hard-copy survey. Attendees are told to look for updates on the project website, where they can also sign up for updates. | Host the same open house using a tool like Zoom or Teams and share the meeting recording. Collect comments into an online tool that allows posts to be categorized and geo-referenced. Just like during the in-person meeting, the public can see each other's comments. Input opportunities remain open for two weeks, and staff add the in-person collected comments to the online space for comparison and transparency. | Someone accesses the project website from their phone on their bus ride to work via a QR code or from a library computer. They are offered an opportunity to answer the same questions people were asked during the open houses. The site is designed to show how to participate if someone only has five to ten minutes and how to stay updated on future engagements. | Consider the under-represented communities that you need to reach. Some communities are easier to reach via certain settings. For example: Attend a pre-existing, regular community gathering and ask for 20-minutes on the agenda to collect targeted feedback that you relay directly into the online space. |
[05] Let's Share
What do hybrid meetings look like in your communities? (15 minutes)
In your breakout rooms, please go around the group and share a bit about how you have designed hybrid meetings in the past and what have been your key considerations in doing so. If you don't have experience designing or hosting hybrid meetings, share a bit about why your organization doesn't use these strategies and if you see any opportunities for their application.
Your facilitator will take their notes directly into the below comment box, but feel free to add your own comments, or respond to others with additional ideas, clarification or links to examples.
[06] Let's Brainstorm
Pick a common challenge with hybrid meetings in your group and brainstorm some ideas to address it. (15 minutes)
In your breakout rooms, dive into some common challenges expressed throughout the webinar so far and have a discussion about how you might address them. Think about creating equivalencies in your in-person, digital, hybrid and asynchronous engagement strategies.
Your facilitator will take notes directly into the below comment box, but feel free to add your own comments, or respond to others with additional ideas, clarification or links to examples.
[07] Follow Through
Follow-through in a hybrid meeting, especially for community engagement, ensures that both in-person and online participants feel their voices have been heard, decisions are actioned upon, and there is transparency in the process. Here's how to effectively follow through:
Document the Meeting
- Summary and Minutes: Assign someone to take detailed notes during the meeting, capturing main points, decisions, and action items.
- Record the Session: With permission, record the virtual component of the meeting, so those who missed it can review later.
Compile Feedback
- Survey Attendees: Use online surveys or feedback forms to collect participants' opinions on the meeting's effectiveness, content discussed, and suggestions for improvement.
- Collate In-Person Feedback: Designate a time during or after the meeting for in-person attendees to submit written feedback or concerns.
Review and Analyze Data
- Understand the Concerns: Review feedback and identify patterns or common concerns raised by the community.
- Quantitative Analysis: For any polls or surveys conducted, review the data to understand the sentiments and preferences of the community.
Communicate Outcomes
- Follow-Up Email: Send a follow-up email to all participants with a summary of the meeting, main decisions, and next steps. Include a link to the recorded session.
- Community Portal Update: Update any community engagement portals or websites with the outcomes of the meeting and the planned next steps.
Assign and Track Action Items
- Responsibility Assignment: Ensure every action item has a designated person or team responsible for it.
- Use Project Management Tools: Tools like Trello, Asana, or Monday.com can help track progress on tasks and maintain transparency.
Stay Accessible
- Open Channels for Ongoing Feedback: Allow community members to continue providing feedback after the meeting through dedicated channels, like community portals or direct emails.
- Host Office Hours: Designate certain hours where community members can reach out with questions or concerns.
Consistent Updates
- Progress Updates: Periodically update the community on the progress of action items or decisions made during the meeting.
- Newsletter: Consider a monthly or quarterly community newsletter to keep everyone informed.
Reflect and Improve
- Internal Review: Have an internal team meeting to discuss what went well and what can be improved in terms of hosting and following through on hybrid meetings.
- Implement Feedback: Make sure feedback from the community is taken into account in future meetings and engagement strategies.
Plan the Next Engagement
- Schedule Follow-Up Meetings: Depending on the project's scale, schedule follow-up meetings to continue the engagement and keep the momentum going.
- Advertise in Advance: Ensure the community is well-informed of upcoming engagements.
