Coming soon: Tips for better online engagement

Six weeks into our ‘new normal’ operating conditions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been great to see how well everyone associated with the CRCWSC is adapting—our staff, researchers, partners and participants.

With the support of our partners and the ‘can do’ attitude of the CRCWSC team, we’re continuing to release outcomes of research, run training sessions, advocate for water sensitive practices and provide opportunities for connection and collaboration. Several new reports in the past few weeks provide guidance on how to engage communities in water sensitive cities transitions, and how to conduct effective multi-stakeholders collaborations. We have participated in virtual conferences (e.g. our SA Regional Manager, Mellissa Bradley, presented at the TRANSFORM conference), and our Regional Advisory Panel meetings and project meetings are continuing.

We’re trying new things, learning from our experiences, adapting our processes and procedures, and then applying these new practices on-ground.

Technology is certainly helping us keep in touch, plan our activities, and deliver research outcomes and adoption events. We delivered our first Couch Time - Conversations with the CRCWSC, about how to use passively irrigated streetscapes to cool our cities and manage stormwater runoff. You can watch the video here. We launched the latest addition to our Scenario Tool—the TARGET module—virtually last week. This latest module shows users how green/blue infrastructure can affect land surface and air temperatures and human thermal comfort at a given site. You can read about it here.

But, using technology presents its own challenges. The CRCWSC is known for our innovation in collaborative processes and tools. So we’re using the COVID-19 period to experiment with different approaches, and provide guidance to our partners and participants on how to engage effectively online. We’re developing a resource that we will circulate once it’s done. But in the meantime, here are some of our top tips on how to run effective virtual engagements:

• Consider having both a facilitator and a technician. The facilitator focuses on running the workshop or meeting, facilitating the conversations, while the technician runs the software, switches screens, and provides IT support etc.
• Keep your virtual meetings/workshops short, because participants find them mentally taxing. Best practice from schools using online learning is to halve the length of sessions, and then split the time 50:50 between screen time and individual/off line activities. So, a half day workshop becomes a 2 hour workshop, with a maximum of 1 hour screen time.
• Consider the timing of your workshop. If possible, don’t schedule them over school break times (for people whose children are also learning at home).
• Circulate documents and slides before the workshop, so that participants have as much information as possible before you start.

Thanks you for your ongoing support through these challenging times and I encourage you to stay in touch with us and each other, and importantly, stay safe and well.

Ben Furmage
CEO, CRC for Water Sensitive Cities