Blog: The Six Benefits of Community Power

And why it should matter to event and conference organisers

According to the latest report from New Local, an independent think-tank and network of 60+ councils in Britain ‘community power is an idea whose time has come.’

For those of us in the conference and events sector, it is a challenging prospect to consider how to engage with community, where to start, or even why it matters.

Firstly let’s consider who the community might be. For an event, it could be neighbours of the venue, prospective attendees or stakeholders, an organisation, a group, or non-for-profit that you may wish to support. For a conference, it could be the delegates, or members of an association, or those in need of assistance in the community as a result of a chosen topic or theme.

Now imagine engaging these community members at the start of your planning process. Understanding their needs or issues, and then using your event or conference as a mechanism to start addressing these. Put 1 - 2 metrics around this (start small in your first year of planning) & determine how you can report on these, consider how you can align with the four pillars of the Aotearoa New Zealand Living Standards Framework or even the UN Sustainable Development Global Goals (a little more advanced). Now you have created an opportunity to demonstrate tangible change by working with your community.

Easy huh? Despite its simplicity, we recognise that this type of event planning requires time, resource, and prioritisation. Something that is often lacking for both event and conference organisers.

The six core benefits identified in ‘Community Power: The Evidence’ are a pragmatic demonstration of how community power can have real, tangible impact for people, communities and services. Such as improving individual health & wellbeing, strengthening community resilience, enhancing democratic or policy participation, building cohesion, embedding prevention & early intervention in public services, and generating financial savings in the longer term.

While the conference and events sector rises from the ashes of 2020, it is timely to consider the influence we have, the ability to make substantive change, and how we can do more to improve the lives of people, and their communities.

“Community power is already happening. It’s creating change across the world, in the places we live and the services we use.”

The Tenth Letter provides workshops and consulting services on the social impacts of events. To learn more about our core products, visit our Contact page or click on the links below ⤵️