When Engagement Is Quiet: What We Learned from Our CAC Workshop
As a board member of the Te Whare Āniwaniwa Collective, I recently facilitated a Community Advisory Committee workshop exploring early spatial concepts for the Rainbow Hub.
Attendance was lower than we had hoped. That matters. And it tells us something.
Engagement is not automatic
We presented developed bubble diagrams, not floor plans, but spatial relationships. The intention was to invite feedback by asking participants to mark directly onto the diagrams:
What connections feel right?
What spaces are missing?
Does circulation make sense?
What operational spaces are required?
Those who attended engaged meaningfully. They scribbled, questioned, challenged, and added. The feedback was thoughtful and practical. But strong feedback from a small group is not the same as broad buy in. That distinction is important.
Participation must meet people where they are
Community engagement cannot rely on a single committee format. If attendance is low, the answer is not to push harder in the same way. It is to adapt.
The next step is to take the bubble diagram workshop directly to key tenants and stakeholders. Smaller groups. More targeted conversations. Less presentation, more dialogue.
The aim is simple: build understanding of function before form. Once people see how the building could work, they are far more willing to engage with how it should feel.
Building buy in slowly
Alongside this, we are pushing the community mood board out more broadly, rather than relying on meeting attendance, we are creating multiple entry points:
Contributing images
Sharing references
Commenting on themes
Explaining what resonates and why
Not everyone wants to attend a workshop. Many are willing to contribute digitally, in their own time. Buy in is rarely built in one room. It is built through repetition, visibility, and inclusion.
Governance means adjusting course
The work now is to:
Re run the functional workshop with key tenants
Expand the reach of the mood board
Clearly show how feedback informs decisions
Engagement is iterative.
The goal is not to say we consulted.
The goal is to ensure that when this space opens, the community recognises itself in it.
That takes time. And it requires persistence.
