Three nights. Three open houses. Three rooms full of people with real questions about what's coming to their community. Over 350 people and 120 speakers — yeah, 120 speakers. This is our work!
When you do community engagement right, you don't show up with just the slideshow and a script. You bring subject matter experts who can give straight answers. You bring maps and data. And when you don't have an answer, you say so and you follow up.
My role these three nights was moderator. Keep the process moving, keep the room respectful, and make sure everyone who showed up got their questions addressed. That's a job you can only do well if the team has done their preparation. Your experts need to understand the local context, not just the technical specs. You need to know the concerns before people voice them. Oh, and the room setup, the sign-in, the follow-up plan. All of it matters.
Here's what years of doing this across solar, data centers, battery storage, and wind projects have taught me: the communities that push back hardest are usually the ones that care the most. That's not a problem — that's an opening to engagement.
The tough questions don't worry me. Silence does. When people stop asking, it usually means they've stopped believing you'll give them a straight answer.
Every hard conversation, every resident who stays an extra 20 minutes because they finally feel heard — that's how projects earn trust. Not on paper, but in person. This is why we do what we do!
Planning an open house or community engagement program? Get in touch.