Key Dates

This was a 'deliberative democracy' approach—one where panellists received information and evidence and provided advice and recommendations on a topic of importance for the city. In this case, the topic was the vision that will guide the City of Hobart's work into the future.

The panel worked with the story from Only in Hobart and the pillars from the City Forum. They also received other background information and heard from subject matter experts on a range of topics.

Over three weekends, developed a report that they presented to the Council Aldermen themselves, at 14 March 2018 meeting of the Finance and Governance Committee. This report created the core of City of Hobart's next vision.

Once the vision document was drafted, based on the panellists input and findings from the engagement, the draft was returned to panellists for their review and input.

- Provided a written submission

- Attended a stakeholder workshop

All of the feedback was provided to the Community Panel, to inform their deliberations about the draft vision. It was also reconsidered during the drafting of the vision.

There were three ways to write to the vision project team with your ideas about the future of Hobart:

- Fill out the hard copy survey distributed with the City News to all the residences and businesses in Hobart

- Fill out the online survey for individual community members on Your Say

- Stop by one of three pop ups at Salamanca Market, Farm Gate Market and the Christmas tree lighting (Nov 2017)

All of the feedback was provided to the Community Panel, to inform their deliberations about the draft vision. It was also reconsidered during the drafting of the vision.

This was the first vision project stage where bottom-up ideas, stories, and energy from Hobartians begins to meet decision-making and policy development—building the future of the City.

The findings from the forum will fed into the Community Panel.

Topics included:
- What are you most proud of about the city?
- What are examples of Hobart at its best?
- What could only happen here?
- What would you like to preserve?
- What would it break your heart to lose?

Half of the participants were a random stratified sample of people from across ages, suburbs, gender, life stage, and socio-economic backgrounds. Stakeholders and innovators from varied communities, including businesspeople, artists, and social and environmental leaders also participated. (Our FAQs describe how we approached recruiting people to speak with.)

The interviewers heard common themes from Hobartians—what they think is important and special about this place that we call home. Powerful tensions and ideas emerged. The major themes were condensed into a narrative—the Hobart story, as spoken by community members.

To expand the conversation even more, The20 launched a blog called 'Only in Hobart'. Through October and November 2017, they revealed the major themes from the interviews and invited Hobartians to respond with their own thoughts and ideas. Visit the blog—www.onlyinhobart.com.au—to see what they've unearthed and join the conversation.