Last week I joined a couple of other presenters at CityCamp Colorado to give an ignite presentation. Ignite presentations are short, 5 minute lightning talks where the slides advance automatically every 15 seconds.

The format was a bit daunting at first, so I did a couple of dry runs to get used to speed and timing. I think as a newbie I did alright, slow start but once I got the hang of it I was able to highlight some of our core ideas about online engagement processes in lightning speed. 

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Visit our booth in the exhibit area to learn more and get a demonstration.

Urban Interactive Studio (UIS), a technology consulting firm specializing in web and mobile solutions for urban planning agencies, will be introducing its recently released web tool, EngagingDowntowns, at the Downtown Colorado, Inc. 2011 Annual Conference, on September 21-23. UIS will be showcasing its new EngagingDowntowns website offering during the three day event. Conference attendees are encouraged to stop by and tour this full featured online platform, which enables community leaders to quickly launch and maintain interactive, community-focused websites for strenghtening the local economy, building tourist interest and promoting community events.  

“We developed this platform so that mainstreets, downtowns, business improvement districts and the like could reach more people and engage their community through a compelling website,” said Chris Haller, founder and CEO of Urban Interactive Studio.  “We’re excited to be showcasing our newest tool for agencies to discover what EngagingDowntowns has to offer. Promoting local businesses, venues, events, and news is simple and cost-effective with EngagingDowntowns. Powerful, yet easy-to-use administrative tools, map-based listings and mobile tours enable you to rapidly create an engaging Web presence to showcase your community, businesses and events in a highly compelling way.

EngagingDowntowns enables organizations to offer one central place online for citizens, tourists, investors or Realtors to find and share local businesses, event announcements, news, historical information, mobile tours, and real estate. Users can also provide their own feedback about community happenings and get engaged through social media.

The value of hosting community resources such as interactive maps, real estate and business listings, public events, tourist attractions and historical information in one convenient location online is becoming more apparent; however, many mainstreets, downtowns, and business improvement districts can’t afford the financial or administrative output required to maintain a compelling web presence. Custom websites can set an organization back by $10,000 or more in development and hosting fees without providing many of the interactive and social media features common on today’s websites. EngagingDowntowns enables the rapid launch of an affordable, robust website and content management system, with minimal effort and no special technical skills required.

UIS has successfully launched EngagingDowntowns pilot projects over the last several months, including the site for ‘Cliffes Commercial District, to support the local economy in Westcliffe and Silver Cliff, Colorado. The tool has garnered praise from city managers that appreciate the ability to combine location-specific content management tools with social media integration, reducing the cost of public outreach and marketing efforts. “If you lack the time or knowledge to develop and maintain your own website, EngagingDowntowns is a great platform. It showcases all that the 'Cliffs Commercial District has to offer. It is easy to add content, while not having to worry about the behind the scenes issues and we really like the easy to use mapping feature.” said Kathy Reis of the town of Westcliffe, CO.

Urban Interactive Studio will be attending the upcoming DCI conference in Durango, CO to provide more information about EngagingDowntowns. The company offers a variety of platforms for helping agencies accomplish marketing and public communication objectives, combining a variety of online and mobile tools, as well as social media techniques to facilitate community engagement and to promote local economies in innovative new ways. EngagingDowntowns is the most recent release of UIS and reflects the company’s vision to make cities and towns more livable.

To learn more about EngagingDowntowns and how it can benefit your community, contact Chris Haller at 303-720-6424 or request a demo at the DCI Annual Conference here .

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Over the weekend, our friends at SustainableCities.com featured our recent article on IBM's System Dynamics: Planning for Smarter Cities.

System Dynamics: Planning for Smarter Cities

Smart cities don’t happen by accident.  To help planners and policy makers better understand and manage the dynamic behavior of cities, IBM Global Business Services is introducing new analytics software and services based on their “smarter cities” strategy.  System Dynamics for Smarter Cities is an interactive model that allows leaders to observe how the core systems of a city -- such as the economy, housing, education, public safety, transportation, health care, government services and utilities -- work together and affect one another. 

The City of Portland has collaborated with IBM as the first client to implement the new service.  Using the model to support the development of metrics for the 25-year Portland Plan, planners in Portland were able to experiment with computer-simulated cause-and-effect situations to see how their decisions might play out across various city systems.

The use of this technology allows municipal leaders to gain an integrated view of how their cities’ systems are inextricably linked, to avoid policies that may have unintended negative effects, and to increase efforts on policies that are projected to have positive ancillary results.  In many ways, the system dynamics approach is focused on the same principles as many public engagement strategies: taking deliberate steps to increase knowledge and predict outcomes, in order to build a smarter city.

Read full article >>

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With so many online tools available for stakeholder engagement (140+ on the Participate DB database alone), it's sometimes hard to differentiate among them.  How do you know which tool is best for your project or organization? To help you sort through the clutter, PublicDecisions has created a Tech Lab webinar series. Our CEO, Chris Haller, was asked to present for the Tech Lab last Friday, July 29, where he showcased EngagingPlans. Participants were able to see the EngagingPlans in use and ask questions.

View Presentation Video >>

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Our friends at Urban Times recently solicited us for our expert perspective on how gaming is affecting the planning world. Of course, we were more than happy to oblige. Our response was published on June 16th: Gaming For Better Communities. 

“Gamification” has become a full-fledged movement.  It started with social media, then spread across industries as marketers discovered the allure of points, badges, challenges, and rewards as mediums to making almost anything seem like more fun.  These efforts to attract users met with varying degrees of success, but critics worried that such “funware” was just glorified “bling” that delivered little in terms of value.  Then Jane McGonigal gave her much-circulated TED talk on how “Gaming Can Make A Better World”, and the concept of gamification began to enjoy new-found respect as a driver for community-building and a motivator for real-life change.

Really, gamification doesn’t have to mean making a game out of everything, nor does it mean that reward schemes must be slapped onto every product and pursuit.  In its simplest form, applying a “gaming mentality” to a project involves simplifying the real world into a distinct cause-and-effect structure within a certain realm, making it easier for people to interact, share, and problem-solve.  Community enthusiasts would be wise to examine the possibilities inherent in gaming, in order to discover ways that its effectiveness could be applied in place-building.

Read the full article at: http://www.theurbn.com/2011/06/gaming-for-better-communities/

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