Why Is City Planning Using Webinars for Outreach?

Even though our City Planning staffers are taking every precaution to slow the spread of the coronavirus, their work has not slowed down. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy relies on the essential functions of government—including the services of city planners—to keep moving. 

To assist with this work, our External Affairs Division has developed a set of online engagement protocols to enable the seamless continuation of open houses and other informational outreach efforts through the facilitation of interactive webinars, online meetings, and workshops. These webinars are separate from the Department’s public hearings and commission and board meetings. They are intended to support citywide outreach efforts for new policy initiatives and ongoing work programs.

Building and maintaining these open lines of communication between the public and planning staff is crucial to the process and success of planning and development projects. For that reason, planners are now trained in the skills needed to host and facilitate online community outreach efforts using GoToWebinar, GoToTraining, and GoToMeeting. 

The Department’s online engagement protocol covers various rules of engagement and other helpful tips for hosting webinars and interactive online meetings. City Planning selected these platforms based on the flexibility they offer, including supporting breakout groups and allowing users to conduct polls and complete evaluations in real time.

To see all the upcoming events, interactive webinars, informational presentations, hearings, and board and commission meetings, please visit the Events Calendar on our website. Also, don’t forget to check out our Email Sign-Up page, where you can choose to receive information about more than 40 topics of interest, including advance notice of upcoming events.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!