The client said, even somewhat surprisingly to him, the dinner parties were an instant success.  Community members felt going to their neighbors homes was a much “safer” forum to meet with the company and hear about its plans than going to the usual civic center or school and enduring through a 2-3 hour meeting and its countless speakers from both the company and local governments.

This individual told me his person on the ground there in Southern Texas simply asked a few local residents if they would be willing to host the meetings and once they said “yes”, she then coordinated having food from a local restaurant brought in and she would then handle all the details regarding setup and cleanup.

Now sometimes the “town hall” is a company’s only choice, but either way, this novel concept of appealing to people’s stomachs sounded like a great way to either supplement or complement a company’s efforts to help inform the community of the benefits of what could become a controversial project.

The post Forget the Town Hall Meeting. Appeal to their stomachs! first appeared on Spoken Word Communications.