Involving your community

Involving your community in the creation of a smart place will build trust and ensure technology solutions support outcomes for your place.

Listen

Goals of this stage

Involving your community in the creation of a smart place will build trust and ensure technology solutions support outcomes for your place.

We can earn community trust and gain support for the use of smart technologies in public spaces if we:

engage deeply to understand community wants, needs and concerns
use technology to address problems the community is passionate about
are transparent about the use of smart solutions at all stages.

Engaging with your community

Engaging customers and stakeholders during the design stage is essential to helping you understand:

the data that may exist to support your solutions
how well your planned solutions meet stakeholder needs
the level of support you have for new approaches and any stakeholder concerns.

i. Co-creating smart places

ii. Being transparent

Checklist

Sign up to the Smart Places Customer Charter

Follow guidance within the Smart Places Customer Charter to build trust with your community.

Maintain transparency with your community

Use clear communication when talking about smart solutions, outcomes and data use. Transparency builds trust.

Keep your community involved

Engage communities from the project's inception.
Co-create smart solutions by involving diverse groups in understanding their needs and desires.
Integrate community engagement throughout the smart places lifecycle. You may need to adapt approaches based on the scale and type of solutions.
Regularly seek input and always provide opportunities for feedback.

Start with Country and consider diverse perspectives

Include a broad cross-section of perspectives when engaging with your community. Consider the groups identified in co-creating smart places.

Consider a human-centred design approach

Adopt a human-centred design approach and involve communities in problem solving.
Prioritise community involvement during the discovery, ideation and implementation phases.

Utilise resources for co-creation

Leverage resources provided by the relevant authorities and organisations to help guide you.

Be transparent in places with smart technologies

Implement Digital Trust for Places and Routines (DTPR) for transparent communication about technology use in public spaces. This fosters citizen understanding and feedback.

Access case studies and learning

Explore the SmartNSW Case Study Library for successful outcomes.
Explore SmartNSW Masterclasses to build skills in technology, data and community engagement.

Resources to help you involve your community

A parent and child using the smart furniture at Merrylands Civic Square. Credit: Cumberland City Council

SmartNSW Case Study Library

Technology and data solutions are helping make our cities and towns more liveable. Find out about projects and pilots that successfully engaged their community to improve public places.

A person holding a mobile phone in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House in Sydney, NSW.

Smart Places Customer Charter

The Smart Places Customer Charter includes 6 principles and 3 core values to apply when creating a smart place. It helps to build trust with your local community.