Open House Preparation
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Today we started at 7:00 AM. We finished inside, set up the tent and helped set up the area were the Gumbo was being cooked.
The input approach was very well planned and the various posters very well done. They were very organized with a setup manual and a conference call in advance to cover any questions.
I am very pleased with the setup we designed. Using the space itself and the dividers, we created this maze to control the flow of people. Individuals enter in the front door and are greeted at a welcome station where they are asked to sign in and place a pin on a map to indicate where the live. They are also asked to think big – going beyond individuals needs to community needs. Then they are directed to an information station with maps and lots of information they can take with them (every time I look at the Information Station sign I want to sing the Conjunction Junction from the School House Rock snippets that appeared between the Saturday morning cartoons when I was young!).
Next they get to use dots to vote for the three most important of the 20 or so Planning Principals displayed on three posters. Around the corner they get to write key issues in each of the five areas on sticky notes and place them on the appropriate poster.
In the back room they first come upon the Tough Choices station with three posters where they get to express an opinion on questions like should the levees be rebuilt stronger if that means there is not as much money for housing and economic development projects? Next they are invited to post what they treasure about the parish. Finally they are asked to share their vision of the Parish in 5 to 10 years. As they exit the back door they are thanked and given a coupon to go get gumbo. Especially in the back room the smell of gumbo fills the air and the sound of Zydeco can be heard
Just outside the door people sit at tables under the tent eating gumbo and listening to the band playing on the corner where they attract attention from passers by. Between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM 80 people work their way through and take one of the numbered food tickets.
[Later note: Louisiana Planning Day included open houses in all the Parishes developing a recovery plan plus in cities in and out of the state with large numbers of evacuees. There were approximately 35 events attended by a total of 3,500 – an average of 100 people per event. That Allen Parish with only 24,000 people had 80 people attend is a testament to the great job the team did.]
Today we started at 7:00 AM. We finished inside, set up the tent and helped set up the area were the Gumbo was being cooked.
The input approach was very well planned and the various posters very well done. They were very organized with a setup manual and a conference call in advance to cover any questions.
I am very pleased with the setup we designed. Using the space itself and the dividers, we created this maze to control the flow of people. Individuals enter in the front door and are greeted at a welcome station where they are asked to sign in and place a pin on a map to indicate where the live. They are also asked to think big – going beyond individuals needs to community needs. Then they are directed to an information station with maps and lots of information they can take with them (every time I look at the Information Station sign I want to sing the Conjunction Junction from the School House Rock snippets that appeared between the Saturday morning cartoons when I was young!).
Next they get to use dots to vote for the three most important of the 20 or so Planning Principals displayed on three posters. Around the corner they get to write key issues in each of the five areas on sticky notes and place them on the appropriate poster.
In the back room they first come upon the Tough Choices station with three posters where they get to express an opinion on questions like should the levees be rebuilt stronger if that means there is not as much money for housing and economic development projects? Next they are invited to post what they treasure about the parish. Finally they are asked to share their vision of the Parish in 5 to 10 years. As they exit the back door they are thanked and given a coupon to go get gumbo. Especially in the back room the smell of gumbo fills the air and the sound of Zydeco can be heard
Just outside the door people sit at tables under the tent eating gumbo and listening to the band playing on the corner where they attract attention from passers by. Between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM 80 people work their way through and take one of the numbered food tickets.
[Later note: Louisiana Planning Day included open houses in all the Parishes developing a recovery plan plus in cities in and out of the state with large numbers of evacuees. There were approximately 35 events attended by a total of 3,500 – an average of 100 people per event. That Allen Parish with only 24,000 people had 80 people attend is a testament to the great job the team did.]
posted by J Corlss at 8:18 PM
2 Comments:
Creative way to elicit participation and comments; more interesting and fun than a traditional focus group. Very resourceful.
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