Community engagement specialists are really DJs.
[Record scratch]
This metaphor came to me while attending The Vision is Yours: A Regional Placemaking Forum on regional placemaking last week.
1) The DJ promotes. Before they even spin, the DJ papers street light poles with neon flyers and hypes on social media the party of the year. “Be there!”
Event organizers from Neighborhood Design Center expertly energized attendees over two full days with musical performances, walking tours to artist studios and markets, pop-ups and food trucks from local vendors, hands-on installation projects, and think-tank-style sessions.
These conference activities taking place throughout the neighborhood were colorful, loud, took up space (literally blocking streets), mutually beneficial, and interactive
2) The DJ gets everyone on the dance floor. After reading the room, they pump up the volume, lead a call and response, and shine a strobe light over everyone’s moves.
Conference speakers underscored the importance of building social capital before building places.
Celebrating collective identity lowers people’s defenses when collaborating and envisioning.
In describing the formation of a community-based farmers’ market specifically founded to connect Black-run businesses and farmers with residents in Prince George’s County, Brittney Drakeford from The Capital Market puts it simply:
“Social capital makes people show up.”
In conversation with Drakeford about the Gateway Arts District, Michelle Darden-Lee from Gateway Community Development Corporation describes this social capital as a connection people feel when you
“Lean into what is unique about a space.”
Demonstrate to the community that you have listened to the story they want to tell and then make it loud enough to drown out the counter-narrative.
3) The DJ sustains the vibe with a steady beat. Building on the movement, they mashup songs, hold everyone in suspense for the bass that never drops, and keeps the party going.
The key takeaway of the conference: bold visions for placemaking come from small, reiterative steps. Baltimore social entrepreneur, Bree Jones of Parity Homes, urges folks addressing affordable housing and vacants to use a minimal viable product of your idea to launch, learn from, refine, and grow. Remember your audience is your end-user.
Youth ambassadors from the Montgomery County, MD, chapter of Vision Zero for Youth, a national traffic-safety advocacy group, shared how they created trivia board games, bike workshops, and official walk-to-school days to shift family’s driving habits over time. Tangible and incremental proof points, or small wins, keep community members engaged in the process.
Not only was the conference an immersive, how-to for running a public forum, it was to me an affirmation to me to keep telling the story of the experience—and not only the process and final outcome.
L. Rose Creative 
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