The Stakeholder Engagement Trends you Need to Know to Improve the Success of Your Infrastructure Project

Abstract

We all know that infrastructure projects can have a big impact on communities. Over the next ten years, with an unprecedented amount of infrastructure spending earmarked for South Queensland, our local communities will face a tsunami of information that they’ll need to process, understand, and in some cases action. Whilst this infrastructure spending boom will create more opportunities to engage with communities and stakeholders, the competition will be fierce to get your message heard loud and clearly. In addition, there can be multiple projects underway that need to target the same group of stakeholders – tricky to say the least. Infrastructure projects need to be more than a successful ‘engineering solution’. They need to represent the immediate and long-term needs of users, the desires of project stakeholders and ultimately, deliver long-lasting and sustainable community and environmental benefits. So how do we successfully engage to help shape and deliver infrastructure projects that will deliver these benefits? Stakeholder engagement can’t rely on using the same set of tools and processes that ‘worked last time we consulted’. There is a new paradigm shift that needs to be understood. The community’s expectations have changed and so too has the goalposts thanks to COVID. Amanda Bromley, a Stakeholder Engagement Technical Director with GHD, has 20 years industry experience, the last 15 of which has been spent directly involved in developing and implementing engagement and communication programs for infrastructure projects in the planning, design and construction phases across South Queensland. Amanda will address the trends in stakeholder engagement that you need to understand to help deliver communication and engagement programs to underpin your project’s success. Amanda will also pose the question….. do we really need to consult?