• Community engagement in context
  • Community engagement - an overview
  • Community engagement in a representative democracy
  • Key challenges for the public sector
  • Implications for public sector managers
  • The context for engagement
  • Clues to good community engagement
• Planning CE
  • Community engagement and the policy/planning cycle
  • Project goals
  • When is engagement necessary?
  • Community engagement objectives
  • Community research
    • Media research
    • Community profiling
    • Community segmentation
    • Community and issues analysis
  • Key communication messages
  • Selection of engagement techniques
  • Managing risk
  • Evaluation planning
  • Planning transition and exit strategies
• Implementing CE
  • Working with communities
  • Organisational culture
  • Resourcing
  • Structures and processes
  • Continuity and follow up
  • Representation and control
  • Coordination
  • Other issues
  • Embedding good practice
• Methods
  • Overview of methods
  • Methods of information-sharing
  • Methods for consultation and deliberation
  • Methods for active participation
  • Advanced participative methodologies
  • Choosing an engagement method
• Event management
  • Event engagement processes
  • Choosing a facilitator
  • Structuring the event
• Evaluating CE
  • Introduction to evaluation
  • Principles of evaluation
  • Identifying outputs and outcomes
  • Purpose and approach to evaluation
  • Evaluation criteria and indicators
  • Methods of measuring community engagement
  • Steps in evaluating community engagement
• Risk management
  • Identifying risks
  • Assessing risk
  • Managing external risks
  • Managing internal risks
  • Risk assessment and management plan
• Skills
  • Community engagement skills profile
  • Options for skills development
  • Building the skills of your team

Event engagement processes

Managing a successful community engagement event involves a series of stages, some of which have to happen concurrently. The stages are:

1. Planning
2. Running
3. Following up
4. Evaluating.

Stage	Activities	Timing
Planning	Identifying objectives and determining whether this is the right approach Deciding whether this is a single agency or multi-agency event Invitations – who should be there and what the invitations will say Event approval Clarification of roles of people involved, including yourself as project manager Facilitation (if required) Design and structure of the process Location, catering and other issues Any pre-event reading or materials for distribution Insurances Back-up support Materials required for the day, including displays and equipment Stakeholder management Any other engagement approaches required as support, e.g. web site Agenda for the session Pre-event media	2–3 months, with a significant resource base, 1 month minimum
Running	Event/project management Facilitator management Data on who is attending Agreements regarding what will happen to decisions and data collected Thanks to people involved in developing the event Time management Relationship management	Can be anything from a 2-hour workshop, to a 5-day conference
Following up	Delivery on actions identified in the session Communication with key communities Communication with people who attended the session if required Linking the information into the planning and policy cycle of your department and government generally Ensuring that transition and exit strategies are in place	Ensure that actions and written outcomes from the event are delivered within 2 weeks: it is easy to let these things slip and to lose the confidence of the people involved.
Evaluating	Evaluation of success of the event in terms of: satisfaction of community members outcomes achieved facilitation process catering, etc. Amending any agency procedures/tools in light of evaluation findings	Some evaluation should be undertaken on the day, with other feedback sought after the event.