Diversity & Inclusion

Event Formats

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What level of participation are you hoping to achieve and from whom?

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Consultation

Engagement

Partnership

Barriers to Engagement

Design Issues to Consider

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• Techniques and engagement methods
• Location and accessibility of the venues
• Transportation requirements.
• Childcare needs.
• Format and content of comms and PR materials.
• Use of interpreters, signers, support materials.
• Need for outreach activities.

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Potential Barriers to Consider

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• Capacity and ability of stakeholders to participate.
• Hard to reach groups.
• Levels of community infrastructure.
• Contested/Divided communities.
• Rural isolation.
• Gaps in information.
• Literacy/numeracy levels.
• Dominance of oral culture.

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Workshops and Focus Groups

Key Features

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• Lead by a key orator who mediates the conversation
• Allow people to discuss their ideas in an open and relaxed atmosphere

Workshops can take a variety of formats.

• Designed to exchange information;
• To discuss strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an idea or project.
• To obtain ideas and innovative thinking for a way forward for a project
• Or they can be specifically geared towards prioritisation and production of an action please.

Focus groups by contrast are designed to specifically concentrate on a single issue or programme of topics.

Workshops and Focus Groups

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Strengths

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• Encourages active discussion in a welcoming environment
• Great source of qualitative data
• Efficient way of identifying and clarifying issues
• Conflict can be more easily managed in a small group
• Can be designed with a specific purpose
• Can be targets at ‘hard to reach groups’

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Weaknesses

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• Unlikely to be representative - Small groups may not represent the concerns of all those affected by the issue at hand.
• Workshops can be dominated by articulate and confident individuals if not carefully facilitated.
• Requires experience facilitators, who aim to minimise biasing the conversation.

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Public Meetings, Forums & Roundtable Discussions

Key Features

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• Public meetings provide an opportunity to consult large numbers of people. Meetings can be organised to allow for small group discussions with oral feedback. There are offer opportunities for participants to set or influence the agenda and to ask questions. Small groups are an essential element to engaging people effectively

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• A forum is a regular meeting of people who represent a group or organisation. Forums can be issue or area based. They are typically compiled of members of civic, political professional, economic or social groups from local areas.

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• Roundtable discussions can be used as a tool for consensus building. They have multi-stakeholder involvement, operate by consensus and can generate co-operation to promote the environmental, economic and social sustainability of a community. The basic premise is that all participants, from business interests to the local community, are equal.

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Public Meetings

Strengths

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• Enables large numbers to people to voice their opinions.
• Provides opportunities to explain processes, give info and gather feedback.
• Demonstrates openness and transparent
• Can be used as a launch event/to attract publicity.
• Enables participants to network.

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Weaknesses

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• Unlikely to be representative.
• Attendance can be low unless people are personally or deeply concerned.
• Group dynamics can inhibit some people from sharing/affect .
• Traditional format can limit audience contribution and lead to conflict.
• Confrontation will damage perceptions of the event.

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Forums

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Strengths

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• Regular events maintain momentum, commitment and enthusiasm.
• They encourage wider participation as the activities of the forum develop
• Can be an effective way of reaching excluded groups by targeting concerns specific to those groups
• Can address specific local concerns

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Weaknesses

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• Often involves representatives from existing groups rather than including individuals from the community
• Can have the tendency to become a ‘talk-shop’ rather than being action oriented.
• Potentially rule-bound and bureaucratic
• Potential for confusion over role specifics and responsibilities of local reps.

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Roundtable Discussions

Strengths

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• People are brought together as equals
• Encourages open discussion and helps break down barriers
• Confronts issues rather than people
• May produce innovative solutions
• Networking opportunity

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Weaknesses

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• Requires considerable preparation
• Requires highly-skilled facilitators
• Open to dominance by powerful elites or extroverts

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