Nowadays the importance of community engagement is widely recognised by politicians and management in the public sector. The majority of local, state and federal agencies are involved in community engagement with the purpose to improve public service delivery and develop communities in a more sustainable way.

However, a lot of organisations are still unaware of how exactly to go about embedding community engagement in their policies and projects, effectively planning the community engagement process and achieving high levels of democratic governance. Besides that organisations are left with many challenges related to engaging with different target groups, utilising and tailoring consultation protocols and techniques, and managing conflict and crisis and situations. Therefore, the potential mutual benefits of community engagement are often not reached.

This conference will allow you to hear practical case studies from people who share the experience of working with community engagement within the public sector and will arm you with techniques to:

• Effectively incorporate community engagement in policies and programs
• Build partnerships with and empower the community in the decision making process
• Engage with different audiences
• Choose the appropriate consultation tools and techniques
• Respond adequately to feedback and build consensus
• Plan and collaborate in and between agencies