Division C
Category 10
Martin County Aquatics Center Facebook Page
Situation Analysis: When town hall meetings were reduced due to budget cuts, Polk’s
Government Television (PGTV) and the Communications staff took
advantage of technology to produce Polk County’s inaugural
electronic-Town Hall. Partnering with Information Technologies, local
news media and libraries, PGTV delivered a successful outreach venture
– the first Internet-based town meeting in the state! In early 2009,
PGTV began experimenting with webinars with the idea that it could
provide a convenient method of participation in meetings from home or
work. With a reduction in Town Halls from four to one, staff looked at
that technology to deliver an exciting alternative and accomplish the
County’s overall outreach goals for less money – resulting in a better
return on investment!
Objectives: 1) Implement a
cost-effective alternative to onsite town hall meetings. 2) Give
citizens a convenient and accessible forum for LIVE interaction with
commissioners and staff about issues. 3) Partner with libraries to
provide internet to citizens without it at home. 4) Connect with 100
participants – the average participation at traditional town halls. 5)
Obtain an internal approval rating of 90% and demonstrate the value of
“thinking outside the box” while introducing staff and commissioners to
new technology. 6) Invite the media to become host sites and maintain a
partnership for future webinars (and ensure free online publicity). 7)
Make the interactive forum available for replay on PGTV and for review
on the internet after the LIVE event. 8) Establish multiple interactive
outlets originating from and controlled by Polk County Government. 9)
Team up with I.T. for future webinars.
Implementation: In early June 2009, the commissioners committed to conducting and
participating in an e-town hall on September 17. For 2-1/2 months, the
Communications staff handled interaction with commissioners and county
manager’s office; distributed press releases, media advisories and
twitter reminders; coordinated media interviews; handled marquee
announcements; developed mini-surveys; and served as hosts, online
moderators, technicians, etc., during the event. PGTV staff handled the
technical components, studio production, video features; coordinating
with I.T. on computer setup and network access; providing code to host
sites; and producing and placing TV/radio PSAs. PGTV and I.T. staff had
several challenges during this process, primarily related to firewall
issues in the County’s network. Comments were accepted beginning at 8
a.m. the day of the e-town hall, which went LIVE from 6:30-8:00 p.m.
out of the PGTV studios in the County Administration building. The
“online moderator” monitored the submissions for compliance to a
disclaimer (no profanity, etc.) and posted omments to the host sites.
Evaluation: Every
objective/goal was met or exceeded. The actual event went very smoothly
with ZERO technical glitches. 1) The video streaming software (Ustream)
and the online chat software (Cover It Live) are both free and easy for
the host to set up and for the participants to access. Event costs were
66.5% lower than that of a traditional town hall. Short video features,
replacing the onsite informational displays about county services, ran
for one hour preceding the LIVE event. Brochures were available online
for downloading and at-home printing. 2) Unlike some webinar programs,
Cover It Live offers unrestricted access to anyone interested in
engaging in the online chat. No pre-registration or sign-in was
required, offering a sense of security and even anonymity. Those who
submitted questions were asked to provide a name and city, just as they
would if they spoke at a traditional town hall. 3) Polk County
libraries provided internet access at four branches and even set up
group meeting/viewing rooms at two of those, and they have partnered on
other County webinars. 4) Citizen participation, from 431 unique IP
addresses (meaning at LEAST that many people, maybe more, tuned in)
exceeded our goal by 331%. The 63 comments submitted was a 530%
increase over the average number (10) received at onsite town halls,
and the 19 addressed by Commissioners during the event exceeded the
normal answer rate by 90% as well. 5) Feedback to mini-polls was
positive (polls can be found in the webinar transcript). Internal
feedback was 100% positive, with County leaders indicating this is now
the preferred public service/outreach delivery method, but that they
will continue to hold at least one traditional town hall to ensure
continued face-to-face two-way communication with the community. 6)
Because the partnering media wanted to drive traffic to their own site,
they became stakeholders in the event, and we achieved great coverage
at no cost: six print stories, two TV/radio news stories, numerous
radio DJ announcements, online banners/buttons/stories on 10 media
websites for three days. And the media partners have served as host
sites for subsequent webinars! 7) The e-town hall was recorded and
replayed on PGTV 12 times since the LIVE event and has been posted on
the county website with 113 on-demand viewings. The chat portion of the
meeting remained on the host sites for five days after the LIVE event,
and has generated 169 replays. 8) All host sites displayed the same
content during the LIVE interaction, which was controlled by the
County’s “online moderator.” 9) PGTV and I.T. are more closely aligned
in taking advantage of this technology, following up the e-town hall
with more than 35 webinars to date on various topics. BONUS: Polk’s
image was enhanced elsewhere, as evidenced by the Pinellas County
Government Communications Office request for information on how we set
it up and made it work so well. Just a few months ago, Pinellas County
held its own e-town hall, using our process as a template for theirs!
Budget:
E-Town Hall Traditional Onsite Town Hall
Total Cost: $2,010 Total Cost: $6,000+
Staff time = 48% of overall costs/fewer staff required Staff time = 80% of overall cost
Paid Advertising: $1042 (52% of overall cost) Paid Advertising: $1200
Value of free media promotion = $4,000 Average value of free media promotion: $500