Recently we launched a virtual consultation and webinar aimed at a local community for a client of ours who is running a redevelopment project.
Up until recent times, what they’ve done before is they’ve hired a hall out. They’ve actually had a number of panels printed and then they’ve stuck that up in the hall, maybe up to 10 or 12 of those panels. And then they’ve had to man that haul over a set period of time to allow the general public to come and view the panels, understand what’s going on, and get any questions answered.
This is done for a number of reasons. One is to obviously let the local public know what is going on, but also it’s an obligation that the development company have to go through as part and package of that development in the area. Obviously, with COVID-19, it’s really difficult to actually put a real-life community consultation on.
Virtual consultation set up
So what we’ve looked at doing instead, is creating a virtual consultation. So people are able to register online, which then gave them access to a virtual tour where they could see up to 12 different panels, all with different information on, about what was going on in the redevelopment at that moment in time.
After having registered, they could then revisit the consultation, go back as many times as they wanted to. They could then actually fill out a form where they could put their own thoughts and questions on each individual panel. That was then compiled in the back end of the website and the team behind the development were able to download all of that data, compile it into their systems, and make sure that they can answer the questions or go back if they had any queries. So this worked really well.
And then on top of that, after looking at the virtual consultation, they were able to register for a webinar that was held at the end of the month. So it’s a month project where they could look at the consultation. And then on the webinar, they were able to attend a live webinar where the development panel would sit. They would go through what the plans were and then you as the registered person on the webinar was able to ask questions and the panel then answered those questions. And that ended up being approximately a two-hour webinar where all the questions were either dealt with or they took it offline to deal with it at a later date.
The benefits
This all allowed our client to fulfil their obligations, but it also came with a couple of important extra bonuses for doing it this way too.
First of all, it saved the development company an awful lot of time because manning the hall with people obviously takes time out from doing other things. So they were able to save huge amounts of hours in doing it this way. And secondly, they actually ended up saving quite a bit of money as well! Not only did they save the money on people’s time, but they were able to save money on print and getting panels created and obviously entertaining the public in a real situation where they’ve had to hire a hall and, and invite people in and give them team biscuits and things like that.
Overall, it was a great success! It was a really good way of letting a wider audience know about what was going on. Now in any situation like that as well, we backed that up with some mail that went through everybody’s door. So people who weren’t able to get online could also look at the information. So the whole project was bought together for a small town, and everyone in the town would have been able to get access to be able to view the consultation and see what was going on in their local area.
If you are interested in hosting virtual consultations and webinars, then don’t hesitate to contact us!
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