Getting Started

This page takes you from project conception to conducting the initial workshop. It looks at:

1. Setting up your tools

You’ll need a system of simple tools to manage the project. Here are the steps you need to go through to get set up:

Spend time before you begin thinking about how you will record meetings, engagements, followups, etc. – detailed notes are important.
Start your project in either a spreadsheet or use a copy of our Airtable reporting tool (we’ll provide you with this), depending on which technology you’d prefer.
You can choose between software such as Google Calendar, Office365 or your own website software as a means of recording events. PlaceCal works with your existing tools.

Now we’ll cover choosing your contacts and deciding what to say to them.

Ask yourself who are the people you need to talk to? What are the main places you need to visit?
Make a list of all the key people and organisations you want to get on board.
Think about each person or organisation and what they might need from you when you get in contact.
Start out with the easier targets and bigger organisations since having “social proof” will make it easier to later convince other people to join.
Add any events you discover along the way to your Google Calendar. This calendar can later be printed or shared with other people and will become a useful resource.

Creating an initial calendar is crucial to get the project started.

Using Google Calendar or similar, create a Google Calendar for the area.
If you don’t have a Google account then register one now – you’ll need it sooner or later and we find Google Calendar to be the best all-around software for the task.
Start with one master calendar where you publish everything on behalf of the organisations. You can get started more quickly since it will take a while for organisations to start publishing their own data.