Newsletter, April 2007

Contents this month

• Main article: Dialogue between the Two Cultures
• A new free process design tool!
• Communicating complex subjects to the public
• Project news
• Naples event

Communicating complex subjects to the public

We facilitated an interesting event at a recent CIRIA conference on communicating complex subjects to the public. It was clear that for many people the issue is more when should we be engaging the public rather than how should we do it.

The group discussed the process of deciding how to design and choose the best methods of public engagement. I tested out the four key questions we ask in the Dialogue Designer tool. What do you want to achieve? Who do you want to engage with? How sensitive is the subject? And how much time do you have? Yet again it showed me that if you can answer these questions you can design an appropriate methodology, even if you have extremely complex information to communicate.

Pippa Hyam