Local Government Conference
August 19 2002
Market research consultancy ORC International will be hosting its annual local government and housing conference on 5 September 2002 in London. The conference will cover a broad range of current consultation and research issues being faced by organisations serving local communities.
The event will be relevant to public, housing, community and voluntary sector employees who conduct research, and this year's agenda will focus largely on best practice case studies including:
- A consultation officer's experience of Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) - David Keddie from Dorset County Council will explain what the CPA auditors looked for when assessing the council's public consultation and customer research programme.
- Estate and community profiling: a best practice case study - Feroza Omar from the London Borough of Hounslow will explain how her organisation gathered and utilised data about the diversity of its customers.
- Involving communities: a case study - Michael Callaghan from Midlothian Council will describe the pitfalls encountered when involving stakeholders in the community planning process.
- The role of research in preparing for Charter Mark - Keith Holloway from Thames Valley Housing will outline how customer research has helped the organisation, both to gain a Charter Mark and to improve services to tenants.
- Benchmarking through the Internet - Gavin Ellison from ORC International will demonstrate how the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's BVPI website - which contains data from every local authority in England - can be used to help authorities benchmark themselves against other similar or neighbouring authorities.
- Who wants to be a consultee? - Debbie Lee Chan from ORC International and Cindy-Michelle Waterfield from IML will demonstrate the uses of electronic voting equipment in public consultation.
Explaining the purpose of the event, Rachel Lopata, ORC International's director of public sector research said: 'Our conference will provide the forum for speakers from leading organisations to share their experiences of conducting best practice in consultation and research. It will also provide a great opportunity for delegates to network and make useful contacts.'
For conference information, please contact Emma Wheeler at ORC International on 020 7675 1155.
All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.
