Engaging with stakeholders on the benefits of major projects

Major projects are often used to begin their public lives with a set of justifications, cost-benefit ratios and proposals for impact mitigation. Promoters of major projects would shy away from actually promoting the positive impacts and benefits that a major project could deliver. Whether it’s local benefits – be it improved connectivity, community investment funds or better services – or wider socio economic benefits, any communication about this can often buried amongst the environmental and technical assessments.

The tide is turning, however, and more major project promoters are leading their communications with the promotion of project benefits. Promoters are beginning to better understand the importance of public acceptability. We know Crossrail delivers jobs, improved connectivity across East and West London, apprenticeships, training academies, as well as a raft of community initiatives along the construction route. The Thames Tideway Tunnel will not just be a very big sewage pipe; it aims to reconnect London with its most valuable historical asset, the River Thames. Promoting the benefits can improve how the public, and other stakeholders, perceive a major project.

So how can more project promoters better communicate the benefits of major projects to the wider world?

This MPA evening debate will hear examples from across the industry about how, when and why benefits of major projects should be promoted. With panelists from Transport for London, Copper Consultancy and an international organisation, discussions will consider:

• What are the most effective methods of communicating project benefits?
• What are the implications of communicating project benefits?
• Which organisations, sectors and countries do it best?
• Does better communication of project benefits equal increased public acceptability?