This case study features Social Pinpoint’s legacy platform SPP Classic. 

Shape Urban is passionate about people, places and projects; their refreshing approach to citizen-led community engagement is focused on “creating genuine opportunities for engagement to deliver shared ideas”. With every project having its own unique requirements, challenges, opportunities and personality, the need for strategic facilitation and quality communication is essential.

Throughout 2020, Shape Urban worked with Western Australia’s Department of Transport to engage with key stakeholders in the development of the Hillarys Boat Harbour Master Plan. Hillarys Boat Harbour is the second most visited tourist attraction in Western Australia, offering tourism, commercial, recreational and boating facilities for the whole Perth community. The harbour directly employs more than 1,200 people and has millions of visitors each year.

The Hillarys Boat Harbour Master Plan is aiming to identify a number of strategies and actions that will contribute to the enhancement and revitalisation of this tourism and family-friendly hotspot, so that it can continue to bring people together and build the community.

Originally set to commence their in-person engagement strategy in early 2020, Shape Urban had organized an array of focus groups workshops with existing business, boating, retail, tourism, food and beverage operators and agency stakeholders. With the COVID-19 pandemic halting all in-person community connections, Shape Urban was able to emulate their face-to-face engagement approach through Social Pinpoint’s platform within hours.

Due to the spatial planning underpinning the core of the project, Social Pinpoint’s Interactive Map provided specific Master Plan options that enabled stakeholders to drop pins with comments and suggestions on exactly where they would like to see improvements. The Interactive Map also integrated into various Social Pinpoint Surveys, project background information, and any frequently asked questions.

Shape Urban was able to directly target their key stakeholders with Social Pinpoint. As existing business, boating, retail, tourism, food and beverage operators and agency stakeholders were the focus for this project, Shape Urban wanted to only reach these unique stakeholders. By emailing out a private link to the Social Pinpoint project, this was easily accomplished.

Shape Urban saw an instantaneous increase in their engagement through the use of Social Pinpoint. Traditionally, Shape Urban expected to have five or six strong personalities from key tenants or landlords that contribute and control the flow of discussion. With Social Pinpoint’s online accessibility, Shape Urban were able to increase their impact and penetration to users that may not have contributed if this engagement had still been face-to-face. Originally expecting approximately 30 or 40 people to contribute, Shape Urban received unique contributions from 112 people with Social Pinpoint. Not only did this result in a 180-270% increase in engagement but Shape Urban received greater diversity in their feedback from an increased segment of stakeholders.

Social Pinpoint allows Shape Urban to have a portal that is a dedicated space for engagement, so all information can be stored in one central location and easily controlled if needed. This also means that when needed, projects can be built and deployed with ease and efficiency.

Recently, to support several face-to-face workshops, one of Shape Urban’s clients ‘felt like they needed to do something’ extra to increase engagement. Within 24 hours, a dedicated engagement hub was built, sent to the client, and online. This was never planned in the initial project scope but was made possible because of Social Pinpoint. Participants were then able to consistently engage with each other online between workshops with interpersonal discussions during these interim periods. This additional conversation amplified ongoing information transfer, shared thinking and richer workshop engagement.

Shape Urban has also seen a drastic decrease in the fear of ‘going online’. Many of their clients are more willing to move fast, change things in the moment and remain open to new engagement practices and tools. The past year has really shown that online engagement is an advancement and benefit of traditional engagement strategies and should be continually embraced to support hybrid strategies.