Putting Engagement on the Map

With Elle Price, City of Moreton Bay.

My new favourite engagement tool is the Big Map. And when I say “big” I don’t mean A1. I mean a 10m wide hi-res aerial image printed on fabric, which has its own suitcase for transport. Big enough that most people can find their own house. The kind of map that is bigger than most meeting rooms so you need a hall to hold engagement sessions. I mean a really, really big map.

The act of physically walking all over the region like some kind of all powerful giant is far more immersive and interactive than drawing on paper maps. It makes it easier to consider ideas at both local and regional scales and see the connections between them. That scaling can be one of the biggest challenges when engaging community members about plans covering a large area.

The Big Map has been a hit with Community Reference Groups (CRGs) engaged on some of our region-wide projects. Just laying the map out grabs the attention of community members who enthusiastically search for their home, workplace and other landmarks. I’ve found it to be a great tool for getting people to think beyond their own backyard, which is always a challenge with regional-scale engagement. I’ve also found the immersive nature of the Big Map stimulates more conversation and discussion among participants.

Biodiversity planning

In this first example a 20 person CRG, all passionate conservation advocates, created a biodiversity map of the region. Participants worked together to add colour coded post-it notes to the map to identify biodiversity values, opportunities and threats, and green ribbons to mark corridors and connections. This was a great way to capture local knowledge and ideas at the start of the project. It was also a fun way to break the ice and build relationships between CRG members. 

Coastal hazard planning

For this project we used the Big Map at the end of the CRG process. In their final workshop, a 15 person CRG used post-it notes, colour coded Duplo blocks, and plastic dinosaurs to map out the appropriate level of response to future hazards related to sea-level rise across our coastal areas. It was helpful in visualising impacts at both a local and regional scale, and how responses might interact with each other. It was also a powerful way to visualise a long-term plan over a very large project area.

Next level Big Map

For a new project we’re planning to go even bigger. There is a business north of Brisbane (and similar ones in other capital cities) that projects house designs onto the floor at life size so you can walk through and make changes before construction. It is incredibly immersive. We discovered that facility can project anything you can pull up on a computer screen. Flood and bushfire hazard maps. The design for a new park. A proposed road alignment. It can also project a second computer screen on the wall. We plan to use iPads to capture feedback from participants in real time on an online interactive map, projected on the wall, while they discuss the project that is projected on the floor.

The big questions

Where do I get a big map?

Any good local printer will be able to create one of these for you. Ours is made up of four fabric strips stitched together.

Isn’t that an expensive bit of kit?

It would be if we only used it for community engagement! City of Moreton Bay uses our big map mostly for internal regional scale planning on everything from transport networks to disaster response. That makes it a much more cost-effective investment.

What’s with the socks?

Participants must wear socks to protect the fabric printing. We encourage everyone to wear their most outlandish socks for a bit of fun. They are also a great conversation starter!

And the plastic dinosaurs?

Dinosaurs are cool. No further explanation required.