Do you believe in community engagement? Local network update June 2018
We invite everyone to become involved in the following upcoming local network activities. Save the date now, and watch out for further information coming your way very shortly.
The Northern Qld Community Engagement Network welcomes anyone who works in, or is interested in, community and stakeholder engagement and communications. Hear guest speakers every meeting along with an opportunity to discover more about projects, discuss challenges and celebrate success.
IAP2 Australasia, RPS and the Next Generation Engagement Project have assembled a panel of experts from the policy, planning, legal and commercial disciplines to reflect on and discuss the role of community engagement to the infrastructure sector.
Have you been looking for inspiration for effective and manageable ways to evaluate your community engagement projects? Come and hear from two speakers with different approaches to evaluation.
- Melbourne – Wednesday 18 July and Wednesday 21 November
More info coming soon on these events.
Disclaimer: The local network events are correct at the time of publication. Please be advised that changes to these events may be required without notice.
“Do you believe in community engagement?” featuring Ms Tess Bishop, Dept Premier and Cabinet, Qld Govt, event report by Malcolm Paterson, Brisbane Working Group
Despite confessing to be a ‘policy wonk’ (someone who specialises in studying and developing government policy – it’s in the dictionary!), Ms Tess Bishop felt at ease among a room full of 50 engagement professionals at a recent Brisbane network event, hosted by GHD. There is no doubt that she is a true believer.
Tess is Deputy Director-General, Strategy and Engagement for the Department of Premier and Cabinet in the Queensland Government. Her task was to describe how engagement has delivered for government, and examine some of the obstacles.
Engaging early was one of the themes Tess highlighted as part of her discussion about the place of engagement in the government. She plotted some changes underway. These see more government work engaging with people affected and those people being able to make inputs into planning and development of policy and programs.
The story of the Rockhampton Ice Summit last year and the first phase of a project to address family and domestic violence illustrated how those affected by some of the state’s most challenging problems were involved in working with government to define the issues and see solutions.
Governments have often relied on telling communities what they are going to do through media announcements in the past, but increasingly Tess sees significant steps to engage early and reap the benefits.
In a wide-ranging Q&A session that followed, guests probed issues of risk and road blocks.
When asked if government worries that if it engages with people, it will not be able to deliver something for everyone – especially where they are so many divergent views in the community.
Tess recognised that this is a dilemma for government – anyone who asks questions needs to be ready for wide ranging responses! However, she believes that what many people value most is the opportunity to be heard, and then to have further follow-up about how government has taken up the various ideas and inputs from across the community.
Tess also felt that it’s important for government to go back to communities it has been involved with – that one-time engagement creates problems and people deserve to hear how their input affected the planning and policies.
When asked how engagement teams with ideas that push the boundaries can get support in the risk averse setting of government, her advice was to keep at it and be well prepared.
Thanks to Tess and her staff Romila Prasad and Jaclyn Oudejans for attending and adding their comments in the Q and A session.
And thanks to GHD very generously sponsoring the event, providing a very well-equipped and comfortable venue for networking, enjoying food and drinks and engaging with our guest and her staff. Great effort thank you Mel, Elliot, Melanie and Rose.
