Seasons Greetings from the PlaceSpeak Team

With 2012 coming to a close, we wanted to wish you a festive holiday season and thank you for taking the time to claim your place and speak your mind with PlaceSpeak.

Because of you, PlaceSpeak has grown exponentially over the past year. We started 2012 with just under 800 users and are now nearly 5,000 on six continents (we are still working on have our first user from Antarctica!). PlaceSpeak grew from 4 consultations in January to 40 by December. With your help, PlaceSpeak has been used to help review school board priorities, influence major transportation and infrastructure decisions, direct strategic plans, test community emergency notification systems, guide real estate developments and budget consultations, update community plans, provide input to parks, recreation and cultural programs, and educate and inform environmental strategies.

The PlaceSpeak client list has also expanded and now includes local governments of all sizes, in urban as well as remote areas, island communities, regional or metro governments and agencies, land developers and consulting firms acting for governments, as school boards, First Nations, and not-for-profit organizations. We have had consultations in communities as diverse as Vancouver, Delta, Fort St. John, Nanaimo, Tofino and the Gulf Islands. PlaceSpeak has also moved beyond British Columbia and in 2013 we will have consultations from coast to coast to coast, and expand into the international arena with our first consultations in Northern Ireland, Australia and just across the border in the United States.

Behind the scenes we have been busy with software development, user tutorials, speaking engagements, and outreach to over 200 organizations and companies. PlaceSpeak’s research and development team has received ongoing and continuous support, both monetarily and in-kind, from the National Research Council, IRAP program, MITACS, Canada’s premiere research internship program and FCV, a leading interactive and digital marketing agency based in Vancouver, and we are so very grateful and appreciative of all their support. We are proud of what our small team has accomplished over the past twelve months and we look forward to continuing PlaceSpeak’s growth and impact in 2013.

Some of you have shared your thoughts and views about PlaceSpeak with us and we want to hear more from you about what you like and don’t like about PlaceSpeak. It is from you that we will learn how to make PlaceSpeak the best online consultation platform it can be!

We will soon launch another set of improvements to our platform in order to make it even easier for you to influence policies and decisions. As well, we look forward to releasing the results and analysis of the 2012 Urban Futures Survey, allowing communities across the metro Vancouver region to forecast and anticipate the needs and desires of the Lower Mainland’s 2.1 million residents.

Thank you for a wonderful year! We look forward to growing with you in 2013!
The PlaceSpeak Team