One of the most important – and likely the most exciting – parts of a citizen engagement process is the time when participants finally meet in a physical or virtual room to work together. The design of such an engagement event requires careful planning and many decisions about the format, methods, tools (props) and the flow of the event’s agenda. This section will take you through these different aspects, highlighting the key options and considerations.

Selecting a method

First, 'method' refers to the type of citizen engagement exercise that you will need to implement. There are many options, and below we list a few examples. Which one to go for will depend on several aspects, including the context in which the participatory exercise is being carried out and who requests it, its political anchorage and the expected outcomes, as well as objectives, purpose, time and resources available. Each type of participatory exercise will also come with different demands in terms of recruitment strategies and the support you will need for their implementation.  

If you would like to learn more, we can recommend two readings. Check out the European Commission Corporate Guidance on Citizen Engagement to find out more information about the above-mentioned methods, both in terms of purpose and design (pages 30-45). To read more specifically about representative deliberative processes (like citizen assemblies) read the OECD report on Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions (pages 33-64).

To see cases that are linked specifically to pollinators you can go to the >Blueprints section, where you will find several examples of processes using some of the above methods, including a scenario workshop (>Blueprint 1), citizen science (>Blueprint 2) and two co-design workshops (>Blueprint 3 and >Blueprint 4). Additionally, you can look at the Young Citizens Assembly on Pollinators, which is currently running and which we are supporting, to see an example of a citizen assembly.

Activities and tools

By activities we mean here strategies that define ways of involving participants to achieve a specific goal. The goals can relate to brainstorming, collecting ideas, team building, reaching consensus, analysing information, etc. Each engagement exercise will likely consist of several activities, building on one another. Together, they take the participants on a journey, helping them to achieve the objectives of the exercise in a structured manner. When deciding on this, always keep in mind your objectives and who your participants will be.  

Tools are specific props, objects, programmes, applications, etc. that can be used in the implementation of an activity. These can be either material or digital. The most basic tools of any participatory event are multi-coloured post-its and flipcharts but there are many more. In the descriptions of activities in the database you will find also information about the tools needed.  

In-person, digital or hybrid settings

Most of the participatory methods mentioned above can be implemented as in-person, online or hybrid events. Each setting has its upsides and downsides, and the choice between one or the other will depend on your aims, resources available as well as who you want to involve. Even if many methods can be used in all three settings, this is not always the case, and even where possible it might imply important changes. Hence, the choice of the setting will also impact on the activities you chose and how you connect them together. 

Online events might be easier for people to join, are generally cheaper to organise and offer a lot of helpful collaborative tools - though you must always take into consideration digital illiteracy and digital fatigue, attention span, multi-tasking, etc., for which you will need to take precautionary measures. While there are plenty of online tools available, it might be better to find one platform that allows you to do everything in one place, even at the cost of losing some functionalities. This helps people orient themselves in the digital space, saves time, avoids possible technical difficulties and keeps everything in one place. You can find an example of this in >Blueprint 3. 

On the other hand, meeting people face-to-face, even if requiring more preparations and resources, can be extremely rewarding. When it comes to discussing about pollinators, in-person events also enable experiential learning through first-hand confrontation with the issues, e.g., through a visit to a farm or a park. This can make enormous difference for the emotional weight of such events and in general makes things more attractive. It is also easier to keep the energy, focus and interest up throughout the process, which is important for collaborative actions and discussions.

Hybrid meetings can offer you the best - and the worst! - of both worlds. They lower the bar to join for those who cannot be there in person for various reasons and add digital functionalities. Yet, they significantly raise the complexity of the event and limit the extent of activities that can be carried out in-person. They also require extra facilitators for the on-line participants. We suggest you only go for this option if you have very good reasons and can depend on a solid technical support team. 

Using familiar formats

The formats discussed above might be quite unfamiliar to most people. While for some this will raise their curiosity, other will feel uneasy about signing-up for something unknown. This is why preparing high-quality explanations of the event are so important. But there is another thing you can do to make participatory events more familiar – try using popular gathering formats known to most people, which can also be used as an inspiration for shaping the event. These include picnics, street parties, artistic events – all of which are often organised in specific ways in different countries or even regions. You can organise a picnic focus group in a park or a futuring neighbourhood street party. Specific models might also be more or less familiar to different groups of citizens. For instance, summer schools are well-known by younger citizens, not so much by the older ones. Such familiarity is important as a reference point to help people understand what will happen, but the model might also in itself be something that attracts people to participate, even if they have no particular interest in pollinators. However, you must ensure that these kinds of gatherings align with the community's expectations. A cheerful and party-like format may not be suitable for issues that are contentious within the community, as they may detract from the seriousness expected by some participants.

Choreography

Once you decide on all the above, you will need to prepare a choreography - that is a detailed description of the meeting stating clearly who does what, when, where, with what tools and why. This is something that you should share and agree with all the implementation team, so everyone understands their roles. You will find a template for developing a choreography for download below. 

Go to the >Blueprints section to find examples of how to link the different activities together into a well-flowing programme.

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