Making Engagement More Fun with CommunityMatters

Civic engagement and public participation can often be dry, boring, and even down right tedious, and many of us have struggled to find ways to make civic engagement more fun. Some have found interesting ways to do it, but for many of us, it’s hard to think of new ways to jazz up our work.

But that’s why our partners at CommunityMatters have been thinking and talking over the past month about how we can make our work of building and engaging community more fun. They have already started by been helping show that engagement can be fun with their list of 75 ways to make your town more playful and their “leaderboard” for playful engagement projects.

And CM is continuing to help stimulate and grow those fun ways to engage with the second installment of their “Let’s Play!” conference call series, “Creating Fun Places“. If you missed the first installment in the call series, “Making Engagement Way More Fun“, don’t worry! You can find and listen to audio of the entire call by clicking here.

The “Creating Fun Places” call is coming up November 14th from 4 – 5pm Eastern and will feature two great fun instigators who will share insights on bringing play into normal public spaces:

Public spaces bring our cities and towns to life – they’re where we gather with friends, take breaks from the office and bask in the sunshine on a warm summer day. But much of the public realm is lifeless and overly utilitarian. Wouldn’t it be nice if parking lots could make you smile, or if transit stops were so fun that you sort of hope the bus will be late?

On the next free CommunityMatters conference call, we’ll hear from Mike Lanza of Playborhood and Brian Corrigan of Oh Heck Yeah. They’re working on creative placemaking strategies to turn ordinary places into fun-filled ones. Join us on Thursday, November 14th from 4-5pm for great ideas on making your city or town a more playful place.

We encourage everyone to register now for the conference call, which promises to be both informative and, of course, fun! We know it will be a great break from the work week, so we look forward to having you join us on the call!

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