Unmuted: Successful Public Involvement Practices in a Digital World

“I think you’re on mute.” It’s become a familiar refrain. Too often online platforms become a one-way conversation, making it even more challenging to get stakeholders engaged and comfortable sharing critical feedback.  At the same time, online platforms can offer the ability for increased collaboration, a better return on investment, and added value to the decision-making process.

Stephanie Mace of Avid Core will explore innovative public involvement techniques that actually work. This discussion will provide unique perspectives collected from cultural resource, environmental planning, and public involvement experts across the Mid-Atlantic region who were able to transform traditional stakeholder meetings to meet the needs of the COVID-19 world. Best practices presented will include how to launch effective digital engagement activities, how to develop outreach strategies to encourage participation, and how to build long-term relationships in order to preserve and enhance biological resources, historic properties and sacred cultural sites for future generations.

Speaker Bio:

Stephanie loves pushing buttons and finding ways to connect people. She has more than 18 years of experience working with federal agencies to improve the way we modernize government processes to better serve our communities. Stephanie began her career in public service serving as an outreach liaison for the Department of Homeland Security’s first Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA). Since then, she has been involved in 35 public involvement campaigns related to environmental services, homeland security and digital solutions. As vice president of digital services at Avid Core, Stephanie focuses on creating new partnerships with forward-thinking teams looking to communicate change and deliver sustainable solutions to our citizens.