So what’s it all about?
Commonplace is an award-winning digital engagement tool, designed to make engagement smarter.
Commonplace provides a digital hub to manage consultation, enabling better and more effective communication between local authorities and communities during every stage of a project. The tool provides an accessible method for public engagement, allowing communities to not just respond to concept, but co-design solutions and provide real input.
Commonplace gathers responses through an app or face-to-face activities, allowing for a more comprehensive set of responses, and provides analysis of responses, such as heat maps to identify areas of highest engagement. Social media is used extensively to drive traffic to the Commonplace website.
We spoke to David Janner-Klausner, Co-Founder and Director of Business Development at Commonplace
How did you get involved with London Ventures?
David: We were looking at routes to our key local government market and I approached London Councils, who told me about the planned 2017 round of London Ventures. The scheme is an ideal way to present innovation to the Capital’s councils. It is a fragmented marketplace so having a central programme that connects to all 30 London authorities is very valuable. We are proud to have the London Ventures “seal of approval”.
What do you think is Commonplace’s unique selling point?
Commonplace delivers a reliable, efficient and trusted way for councils to engage and communicate about development, regeneration, transport and service delivery. Our digital platform reaches a very wide and diverse audience, while supporting and improving more traditional face-to-face engagement as well. You get accurate and reliable data on which groups is thinking what in your community. Commonplace's very high level of transparency builds trust. Despite being quite new we’ve delivered close to 200 projects and are completely focused on public engagement in the public realm. Together with our client, Waltham Forest we won this year’s “Excellence in Public Engagement” Planning magazine award for our work on the borough's extensive "Mini Holland" programme.
Why is Commonplace an exciting opportunity for London local authorities?
Commonplace has already enabled London councils to hear the views of tens of thousands of Londoners and to do so efficiently and transparently. Commonplace can:
- Make your engagement budget go further.
- Transform your relationship with the public, building trust through transparency and wider participation.
- Integrate with social media, using these channels to drive traffic to Commonplace, where you can obtain meaningful inputs.
- Be used throughout the life of projects from pre-planning through detailed design, construction and impact evaluation, thanks to its versatility and modularity.
- Put data on public sentiment at your fingertips.
Why you should get involved
Commonplace is London-based and London developed and is already familiar to many Londoners. Commonplace is used or has been used by 9 London Boroughs, Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, the Greater London Authority, HS2, NHS North West London, and London-based housing associations and neighbourhood plans. Using this comprehensive tool has provided consultations with responses from a wider range of stakeholder, who may not normally respond to formal consultations. It has been used to gain public views on a wide range of topics, from the provision of maternity care to the development of town centres and the use of driverless vehicles.
Find out more…
If you want to learn more about Commonplace can support your local authority, contact David Janner-Klausner (david@commonplace.is), or Thomas Man (thomas.man@londoncouncils.gov.uk).