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September 21 and 22
2 days, 2 disciplines, 2 ways to participate – defining our professional roles and uniting to build more equitable, accessible and inspired communities.
#2GETHER2022
Planners from communities of all sizes and contexts have had to re-imagine many previous public engagement practices over the past year in light of the global pandemic. Digital engagement tools have played a key role in the successful transformation of previously established engagement practices to allow projects to continue under the evolving public health directives; however, they have also presented several challenges for many planners and communities. Some municipalities had little to no experience with digital engagement tools prior, while others had already embedded them into their standard practices. In this context, it is important for planners to share perspectives and lessons learned. For example, there is a wide range of interactive tools that can be tailored to the capacity of staff and budgets and can be leveraged to augment current virtual meetings to gain input from community members and stakeholders and reduce barriers to participation. Digital engagement tools are inherently linked to the theme of “Technology” at the 2021 OPPI Conference, particularly as it relates to improving service and collecting data to inform decision-making. Listen as a panel of planners with different backgrounds, including the City of Brampton and Municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc along with a consultant with a background in community engagement, provides a forum for informed observations to explore perspectives and experiences with digital engagement tools and other lessons learned. Importantly, each perspective offered is based on first-hand experience – most currently through ongoing Official Plan Review processes. It is an explicit intention to encourage the opportunity for sharing perspectives and new approaches.