When Welsh Water needed to hold a consultation to share proposals for replacing three ageing water treatment works with a modern, resilient water treatment facility, we developed a bi-lingual (Welsh and English) virtual consultation room that allowed local residents and other stakeholders to access Welsh Water’s early thoughts on the new water treatment works. The non-statutory consultation ran for six weeks.
About our virtual consultation tool
Our virtual consultation tool is an interactive web-based platform that provides an opportunity to engage and consult a wide audience via their computer or mobile device, at any time. By replicating a consultation event, it has the capacity to display digital materials including exhibition boards, maps, videos, virtual-reality and sound demonstration, and is fully accessible. The virtual platform complements traditional methods by enabling people who can’t or don’t want to come to traditional events to view the information in their own time. The platform allows the public to engage with members of the project team in real-time via ‘Livechat’. Formal feedback can also be captured for analysis through online forms linked from the rooms. The platform enables the tracking of anonymous user data which provides demographic information on members of the public engaging with the materials.
Benefits of using a virtual consultation tool
Being able to track visitors’ age ranges, locations, types of device and how they were referred to the room allows clients to understand the best methods of engaging with the most people, and also to understand which stakeholders aren’t being represented. By engaging with stakeholders digitally, the tool enables our clients to reach a broader demographic.
Our track record
Since launching in April 2020, our virtual consultation platform has helped reach hundreds of thousands of people during a global pandemic. We’ve worked with hundreds of global clients and received millions of views of the virtual platform to date.