The 411

DATE NOT SET
9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

ONLINE

$750 (+hst)
Discounts available.

Registration Closed

Meet the Instructor

Josef Jurkovic

Josef Jurkovic is a CEC director and founding partner. He has over 35 years of public and private sector experience across diverse areas of internal and external communications, public consultations, branding and marketing.

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Testimonials

"The small group facilitated exchange between participants."

"A most well organized, informative course - comprehensively covered the requirements and options for consultations before, during and after the enitre consultation process."

"The interaction with participants from other departments provided invaluable insight into the consultations process."

"Provided a good mix of theory and practice around the consultation process."

"Practical, on-point and well adapted to what was needed to move a consultation plan forward."

"Josef helped us think of challenges and issues that we were not expecting."

G004
PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS &
CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT

NOTE: The workshop content described below will be delivered through ZOOM ONLINE on two consecutive half-day sessions. Agendas and other relevant workshop documentation will be sent to you by the workshop instructor at least three days prior to the date of the first session.

WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND?

Effective public consultations and citizen engagement require rigorous planning, efficient execution and excellent communications. The communications dimension of a public consultation or citizen engagement initiative is, in fact, crucial to its success. Understanding the linkages of communications and consultations or engagement, the benefits of a well thought out communications strategy as part of the overall consultation initiative, and the risks of not doing communications planning, is a must for anyone involved in planning and delivering public consultations or citizen engagement initiatives.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN?

How to choose among different models and approaches to public consultations and citizen engagement
How to position public consultations within your overall organizational strategy
Understanding public consultations/citizen engagement as a communications activity
Linkages between public consultations/citizen engagement and strategic communications
How to develop a successful plan for the overall consultation initiative
Identifying and managing communications challenges and opportunities
The communications Do's and Don'ts of designing public consultations
The importance of understanding your audiences and stakeholders
The importance of understanding the role of the media
Communications principles and approaches during public consultations
The essentials of effective messaging
How to monitor and evaluate the overall consultation initiative
The importance of follow-up after the public consultations/citizen engagement process

WHAT WILL YOU TAKE AWAY?

Workbook and checklists, how-to procedures/reminders and templates
Exercise handouts

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COMPETENCY

Engagement: Working effectively with people, organizations and partners

Agenda
8:30 - 8:45	Introductions and Workshop Overview
8:45 - 10:15	What Do We Mean by Public Consultations and Citizen Engagement? Why are Communications a Key? Positioning public consultations within organizational strategy Understanding and defining “horizontality” in public consultations Internal and external dimensions The broad range of models available, depending on the context Key communications principles in public consultations The essentials of horizontal communications Linkages between communications and the key objectives of the initiative Examples of diverse public sector consultations initiatives Mini-exercise: Participants will identify key communications challenges and opportunities inherent in public sector consultations and citizen engagement initiatives.
10:15 - 10:30	Break
10:30 - 11:30	The Public Consultations Planning Framework Key principles of the Framework Linking the process with communications Understanding the drivers and starting the planning process Process issues – core questions, roles and responsibilities Stakeholder involvement and risk factors - internal and external dimensions Communications issues, challenges, opportunities and results Resources and products
11:30 - 12:15	Case Study Exercise: In small groups, participants will analyze a public consultations scenario, identify the drivers behind the initiative and their implications for planning the consultations process and communications.
12:15 - 13:00	Lunch
13:00 - 13:45	It's all about Communications! Planning and managing communications for public consultations - key internal and external communications dimensions Identifying and managing communications challenges and opportunities Phased-in communications: before, during and after the consultation The importance of monitoring the communications effort
13:45 - 14:15	Case Study Exercise: Applying the framework for planning public consultations and citizen engagement.
14:15 - 14:30	Break
14:30 - 15:30	Developing a Plan for your Public Consultations/Citizen Engagement Project Deciding on the model Step-by-step approach and key considerations, pitfalls and challenges Being strategic and understanding risk Understanding and segmenting target audiences, clients and stakeholders Linkage to communications
15:30 - 15:40	Mini-break
15:40 - 16:15	"On the Road Again": Communications Do's and Don'ts Determining the role of the media Understanding and managing "dissenters" and "disruptors" Defining messaging imperatives Spokespersons and facilitators Implementing the communications strategy and action plan Measuring the success of your overall initiative After the consultations process - when does it all end?
16:15 - 16:30	Wrap-up and Evaluation Participants will complete a short evaluation