Episode 32: From Paper-Based to Digital-First Community Engagement with Gore District Council

UK Consult

Elliot Sim, Business Development and Practice Lead at Bang the Table, speaks with Sonia Gerken, Communications and Marketing Manager at Gore District Council, to find out how she transformed the council’s paper-based community engagement approach to a digital-first one. Gore District Council quickly embraced online community engagement — launching their new engagement site with four major community projects. Within the first 7 months of engagement on Let’s Talk Gore District, Council published two more significant community projects, six in total, and amassed over 4,500 visits to the site. The Council has already achieved an engagement rate of 3.35% (a good to high rate based on global industry standards). “Just do it. Don’t delay. Don’t think your community is not ready for it [digital-first community engagement], because they are.” – Sonia Gerken, Communications and Marketing Manager at Gore District Council Key Moments: 4:30 – Transition and reasons behind Gore’s shift to digital-first engagement 6:54 – Achieving internal buy-in for a transformational shift 9:06 – The community’s uptake of Let’s Talk Gore District 11:47 – Promoting your engagement project 12:55 – How to continually build a database 15:25 – Outcomes after launching Let’s Talk Gore District 17:30 -The Council’s community engagement goals for the next 12 months 18:38 -Advice for Councils that are considering moving to a digital-first approach