From May to July 2017, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food (BMEL) hosted its future workshops on the development of rural regions in four regions. Already in the run-up to the project, potential participants were approached via the platform to help set the topics for the workshops. With the help of the platform, the almost 300 responses submitted were condensed into thirteen insights, which at the same time represented the topic areas for the series of workshops.
The CrowdInsights team co-conceived, moderated, and digitally accompanied the future workshops. During the events, contributions were recorded live on the Insights platform and already condensed into insights. In this way, the results of the working groups could also be made available to the plenum directly and that in an appealing way. In the working groups, goals were first discussed and prioritised, then the corresponding framework conditions and measures were outlined in order to realise the defined goals.
Following the series of events, the overall evaluation of the future workshops took place via the Insights platform. The individual findings from the four on-site events were distributed among the three thematic fields of economy & work, community & living together and supply & infrastructure. Experts (including those who had not been present at the on-site events) were asked to add to the previously achieved results and also to contribute to the analysis of core statements with a view to possible insights.
An interesting variant: If a large group is divided into small groups working in parallel, the comprehensive consolidation of the results from the small groups can take place via the platform after the event. In this way, participants are not frustrated because their results from the small groups cannot be communicated in the plenary. Results of the overall process were made available in an interactive full documentation as well as in the form of a final report to both the project participants and the interested public.
Feedback from participants:
“The methodology in the workshops was a good change from the usual approach.”
“The methodology of the event was interesting. The combination of SMS and discussion brought new insights and was fun.”
“The direct processing of the information was very efficient. Am looking forward to the results and further processes. It would be nice to stay informed about it and also keep in touch with the other participants.”
Advantages of accompanying face-to-face events with the Insights platform
- The event becomes a permanently available project website through which further interaction and communication can take place.
- Results of breakout groups (small groups) can be better evaluated and fed into the plenary discussion.
- Optionally, participants can post contributions to the platform via text messages during the event. Significantly more input can be collected from the participants.
- Opening up to a larger group of participants who can participate digitally beforehand or afterwards.
- Results of the process can be transparently traced back to the contributions of individual participants and group sessions in the interactive full documentation.
- A final documentation in the form of a report (PDF) can either be created directly from the online content or refer to the online content in order to be freer in its own presentation.
Service provided by CrowdInsights in this project
- Conception of the process design
- Creation and maintenance of a project website
- Communication and interaction with participants.
- Moderation and instruction of participant groups during the event
- Use of minute takers
- Analysis and processing of interim results during the event
Text and editing (optionally also layout and illustration) of the final report