In order to engage a broad cross-section of the region, MetroFuture employed many different modes of participation:

Visioning Workshops: Open-format discussions with groups of 10 – 200 participants, intended to solicit ideas about the region’s strengths and weaknesses, and visions for its future. Visioning workshops began with a presentation on recent trends to help set a context for discussion. All comments were recorded, coded, and entered into a searchable database.

Briefings: Presentation and discussions hosted or co-hosted by other organizations that brought together their constituencies on behalf of MetroFuture, usually in their own venue or in conjunction with a regularly scheduled meeting. The standard 1.5 hour briefing format included a slide show presentation, discussion, and written comments, but was modified where necessary.

Working Sessions: Large scale, three hour public events, attended by people from different backgrounds throughout the region. They were designed to support collaborative learning through table discussion and interactive participation with maps or computer models at each table.

Leadership Dialogues: Informal meetings with individuals or small groups of leaders and decision makers from the public and private sectors.

Inter-Issue Task Force: A group of more than two-dozen researchers, advocates, public officials, and experts that helped to guide the technical analysis and development of alternative scenarios.

Implementation Task Force: A group of more than two-dozen researchers, advocates, public officials, and experts who helped to develop policy recommendations.

www.metrofuture.org: The site for “virtual” participation and opportunities to access project reports, meeting results, data, descriptions of alternative scenarios, and video visualizations. Visitors could also provide input via email and comment forms, or vote on their preferred scenario.

Polling and Surveys: Survey instruments used to solicit input from the broader public. MAPC commissioned a telephone poll in conjunction with UMass Boston; and placed surveys in local newspapers throughout the region.