Are you or the clients you work with already jumping into tactics without really knowing if they will lead to effective engagement? Would you like to have the conviction to say no to some tactics and yes to others and then convince others in your engagement decisions? If you answered yes, this workshop is for you. Take the mystery out of designing effective engagement. Build a strategy based on it that streamlines a complex process. This workshop will:
Engaging a wide variety of stakeholders over many years is increasingly complex. Transform your approach to consultation, engagement and stakeholder management to push your projects forward. Create a roadmap to:
Transform your consultation strategy to engage citizens better.
Choosing the optimal level of engagement can be challenging. Tailor your approach to achieve the best results from the resources available. Take back to your office strategies to:
Create a tailored consultation strategy that meets your needs and budget.
Getting the public excited about an unknown event can be challenging, especially in a crowded national landscape with marquee Olympic and Pan-Am competition in recent memory. But, including a mandate to transform public opinion and bring about lasting change…that requires a truly special approach. Learn how the Invictus Games partnered with Maru/Matchbox to leverage the power of insight and public consultation through every stage of the event’s planning, from the pre-Games strategy through to the post-Games wrap-up. Take back to your organization ways to:
Create a reason for the public to believe. Find ways to engage and empower.
Identifying all the stakeholders you need to include is critical to the results you hope to achieve. Improve your stakeholder identification process and achieve balanced results. Adopt best practices to:
Select the right stakeholders to provide real insight
Engage in strategic dialogue with fellow consultation practitioners and experts. In small groups, explore best practices, innovations and tools to:
Walk away with novel strategies and a renewed commitment to engagement
Examine best practices and lessons learned from consultations of all types – large, small, national and regional. Explore the role of technology in today’s consultations, how you reach stakeholders, and affect change. Develop strategies to:
Explore how you can use technology in your consultations
The City of Summerside, PEI has undertaken initiatives to engage residents in open discussions about budget priorities and other topics of municipal concern. Enhance your strategy for citizen engagement while improving transparency, accountability, and public relations. Adopt best practices to:
Enhance transparency while engaging your stakeholders.
In 2016, the Bank of Canada launched a public consultation campaign asking Canadians to nominate iconic Canadian women to appear on a new bank note. Advance your plans and strategy though this ‘behind-the-scenes’ look at the planning that went into this public consultation campaign. Adopt best practices to:
Build your consultation strategy from the ground up to ensure it engages citizens in a meaningful way.
There are many tools in our tool kit as public consultation and engagement professionals – from asking the right questions to facilitating difficult conversations – but do we have everything we need to begin addressing the toughest challenges that we face today? We are in a moment where our communities are increasingly fractured and divided, where we work with a public that is deeply cynical and apathetic, and where there is a crisis of faith in government, in political power, and in the bureaucracy that keeps our society running.
Waterfront Toronto is currently engaged in a research and development process that will lead to a new way of thinking about public consultation – and ultimately about how we build our cities – one that grounds their work in compassion and a commitment to working with communities to co-create a new and inspiring idea of “public good."
The day will wrap up with a discussion on what to start, what to stop and what to continue doing in your organization.
Discuss with your peers the topics you would like to participate in for Birds of A Feather on Day 2
Unwind and mingle with the delegates and speakers at our exclusive end-of-the-day reception. Bring your business cards!
The Walpole Island First Nation is a leader in developing a community-based approach to environmental research for sustainable development. Enhance your understanding of best practices in working with First Nation communities to get projects past the drawing board. Develop an action plan to:
Improve your engagement strategy for Indigenous groups to help you move your project forward.
Climate change affects nearly all aspects of human endeavour, making public consultation on sustainable development a wide-ranging effort. Master your grasp of consultation projects involving diverse groups of stakeholders. Source practical tips to:
Take back to your office an improved blueprint for engaging large and diverse groups of stakeholders.
Go beyond reaching the usual participants. Explore strategies you can use to ensure your public engagement efforts more fully reflect the demographics of your community. Gain insight on how to:
Build trust with diverse demographics in your consultation plan.
Millennials are notoriously difficult to engage and are dependent on very different communication streams to other demographics. Reach your targeted audience by implementing new techniques for consultation. Explore best practices to:
Develop a plan for addressing the stakeholders you need to hear from.
Gain insights from your peers and benchmark your organization against others in this interactive session.


There are often situations that arise that pitch stakeholder groups against one another. Navigate stakeholder engagement successfully by learning from those who frequently deal with issues that spark controversy. Create a roadmap to:
Overcome vocal controversy to create constructive conversation
Discover how you can improve your approach to public consultation by learning from the experiences of those involved in the development of social policy frameworks for gaming, alcohol and more recently, the legalization of cannabis. Source practical tips to:
Navigate the minefield of topics that cause a strong response in stakeholders.
Employee stagnation and impaired organizational efficiency is often the by-product of traditional command and control hierarchies. Learn from the City of Vaughan’s ‘Dragon’s Den’ style approach how employee engagement can overcome inertia in your organization. Take back to your office strategies to:
Utilize ‘dragon’s den’ formats in your engagement strategy.
The conference will wrap up with a discussion on what to start, what to stop and what to continue doing in your organization.