Those who involve the citizens of their country, city, municipality or community in the upcoming decisions will involve them from the outset and often come up with new insights and ideas. In this day and age, those who avoid public participation can almost wait for it to become apparent in the course of the implementation process, or at the latest at the start of the planned measure. Whether it is the construction of a new road, a new power line or a new building, citizens want to have their say. But how do you, as a planner or decision-maker in the committees and associations of this country, organise this citizen participation? It's much easier than you might think.
Simply organise your event on site as usual and run the votes via TEDME. With just a few clicks, you can also integrate a video stream, for example from YouTube, and your event website is ready - including voting, surveys or question-and-answer sessions. All you need now for your public participation is a QR code for the event poster. This allows you to reach citizens who come to the event and those who prefer to participate online. This increases your reach enormously and only incurs very low additional costs. If you now also allow anonymous voting - as is possible with TEDME - you ensure even more input. Was that all a little too fast and too much for you? Then we'd like to show you in more detail and in order:
Citizen participation through voting
Do you want to know what the citizens in your municipality think about a certain topic? Then ask them and ask for suggestions or enable a vote. TEDME makes this very easy. Simply set up a survey with just a few clicks and share the link. And you're done. You will receive the results conveniently in the backend, where you can also download them in various formats.
What you could ask, for example:
- Should the motorway be widened?
- Should there be another grammar school in the district?
- How should a brownfield site be put to new use?
- Should the city centre area be closed to car traffic and a promenade created instead?
- What should the mobility concept of the future look like?
- Should there still be open Sundays?
Whatever moves you and the citizens of your community, ask for their opinions and ideas and turn them into supporters rather than opponents. With Surveys over a longer period of time you will succeed in implementing it. All you have to do now: Communicate the link or a QR code so that everyone can take part.
Public participation with streaming events, surveys and live chat
Involve your citizens with the help of events that you stream online in parallel and offer opportunities for interaction. Like the city of Dresden, for example, which invited people to the "Digital Citizens' Dialogue on the City District House".
A real expert in the field of citizen participation is the agency Lots* Gesellschaft für verändernde Kommunikation mbH. You can find out more about their expertise on their website Digital participation: More participation through the Internet. TEDME was used in these two projects, among others:
Digital citizen dialogue on the district house in Dresden
During the digital citizens' dialogue, the city planning office presented the current planning status for the new district house and answered questions from interested Dresden residents. Representatives of the state capital, the planning office and the Johannstädter Kulturtreff first explained the construction project and the future use of the new building.
Numerous comments and questions, including on the topics of site selection and parking, were discussed with citizens digitally. Around 100 questions and suggestions about the Johannstadt neighbourhood centre were received via live chat, telephone and email. The suggestions from the public were then analysed and the event documented.
In addition, the city administration has successively published the answers to the questions that remained unanswered during the public dialogue.
The result? The public dialogue met with great interest.
You can also find out more about the event in Dresden online:
By the way: The questions and comments can also be moderated with the TEDME tool. This means that you as the organiser decide whether you want to release comments and thus publish them. This way you avoid a shitstorm or completely irrelevant comments.
If you use TEDME as an interaction tool, you can also simply integrate the stream here and you have a complete event website. You can also find out how this can look in practice in the article Operating tools in parallel is a thing of the past - how to integrate TEDME into your event platform.
Mainz Mobility 2022
The city of Mainz also involves its citizens in important decisions, relying on the expertise of the Lots* agency and the functions of TEDME. For example, on the issue of mobility, as the city of Mainz wants to be climate-neutral by 2035. For this reason, local public transport in Mainz is to become even more attractive for citizens; among other things, by opening up the most populous district, Neustadt, for the climate-friendly tram. The basis for this is a city council resolution that provides for extensive public participation.
This extensive public participation kicked off with an event on 17 March 2022, which was held exclusively digitally due to the pandemic. It was broadcast live on television and streamed.
More than 400 spectators accepted the invitation and asked 180 questions on the day of the event alone. 40 of these were answered live at the event by experts from Mainz Mobility.
All other questions were included in the online dialogue for digital participation, which started at the same time - and are answered there on the project website.
More about citizen participation in Mainz:
Citizen participation with live voting
Do you want to make a live decision on one or more important issues at your meeting? Then use the Live voting from TEDME. All your participants need is an internet-enabled device and the voting code that you, as the organiser, give them. And off you go.
- Pull out your smartphone,
- Open the TEDME.com website,
- Enter voting code
- and co-decide.
You can see the results in real time and, if you wish, you can also display them on a screen or monitors in real time. This means that everyone can see the results straight away. It could hardly be simpler or more transparent.
Internal surveys in municipalities, communities and associations
Would you like to ask not only the citizens but also the employees of your office or the members of your association? Nothing could be easier.
HR departments in other organisations are very happy to use TEDME surveys for internal surveys of all kinds. It's quick, easy to use and completely anonymous. What's more, nobody has to download anything.
Conclusion
With TEDME, you can organise public participation with just a few clicks. You set up the survey and communicate the link or a QR code so that everyone can take part. Do you want to broadcast it live online? That's super easy too: simply add the stream in TEDME and you have a functioning event website including polls, live chat and live video transmission.
