Put the HEART Back in Your Community

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Put the HEART Back in Your Community

• Unifying diverse interests around a central theme
• Tim Merriman Lisa Brochu

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Convergent Evolution in Community Planning

• Civic Tourism
• Scenic Byways
• Experience Economy
• Sustainable Communities

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CivicTourism.org - Reframing Tourism

• Rethink Economics
• Connecting to the Public
• Invest in the Story

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Scenic Byways

• Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act
  (1991)
• Corridor Management Plans
• 2005
• 8 All-American Roads
• 125 Scenic Byways in 44 states
• 175 Million Dollars in grants

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Pine Gilmores Experience Economy Theory

• Agriculture economy
• Manufacturing economy
• Service economy
• Experience economy
• Theme the experience
• Harmonize impressions
• Eliminate negative cues
• Mix in memorabilia
• Engage all five senses

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Sustainability Definitions

• Brundtland Report - Our Common Future (1987)
• Development which meets the needs of the present
  without endangering the ability of future
  generations to meet their own needs.

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Sustainable Seattle (1991)

• Triple bottom line planning
• Collaborative planning
• Indicators of sustainability

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Sustainability Indicators
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Sustainability Indicators
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Definition of Interpretation

• A mission-based communication process that
  forges emotional and intellectual connections
  between the interests of the audience and the
  meanings inherent in the resource.

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• The care of rivers is not a question of rivers
  but of the human heart.
• Tanaka Shozo

Stewardship
Care for
Care about
Understanding
Awareness
Curiosity
Dragged Along
Social Marketing - The Interpretive Continuum
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Definition of Interpretive Planning

• A thoughtful decision making process that blends
  management needs and resource considerations with
  visitor desires and ability to pay to determine
  the most effective way to communicate a message
  to targeted markets in support of the agencys
  mission.
• Lisa Brochu

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5-M Interpretive Planning Model
Management
Message
Media
Markets
Mechanics
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Management

• mission, goals, objectives (logic models)
• policies regulations
• key issues
• revision and update strategies
• operational resources
• staffing
• budget
• facilities equipment
• maintenance

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Markets

• product - what you have to offer
• price - perceived value
• place - relationship to whats around
• promotion - how do people know about you
• publics - market segmentation
• users support
• existing potential

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Message
Resource
Management

• Why is this site significant?
• What interests visitors?
• What is management most interested in
  communicating?

Markets
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Mechanics

• Large Scale Design Balance
• Site or landscape features
• Facilities and buildings
• Interpretive stories

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Mechanics

• Smaller scale
• Functional relationships
• Accessibility
• Space programming
• Placement
• Physical opportunities constraints
• Maslows Hierarchy

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Media

• Publications
• Signs
• Exhibits
• Souvenirs
• Food items
• Visitor centers
• Auto tours
• Guided tours

• Products for children
• Demonstrations
• Living history
• Audio tours
• Landscape features
• Art sculpture
• Playscapes
• Promotional materials

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Interpretive Planning Fills in the Blanks

• Community-Wide Involvement
• Visitor Experience Design based on Logic Models
• Interpretive Guide and Host Training

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Sphere of Influence

• Interpretive planning works for
• Individual sites or programs
• Community wide thematic approaches
• Regional or Corridor approaches

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Put the HEART Back in Your Community

• Holistic
• Emotional
• Appropriate
• Rewarding
• Thematic

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Civic Engagement Strategies

• Public input meetings
• Public hearings
• Focus groups
• Community Coalitions

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Holistic (mechanics) (TM)Holistic

• Community experience plans (CEP)
• Considers community mechanics
• Respects local traditions

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Visitor Experience Model
Decision
Connections
Entry
Exit
Commitment
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Emotionalthrough media- Process worksheets (what
is the thing you have at home and whats the
story behind it)

• Making connections
• Advertising approaches
• Keepsakes

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Appropriate

• Authenticity
• Audience-oriented

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Rewarding (management) (LB)- rewards for
stakeholders, community at large,
visitors- logic model objectives (measuring
reward for community and visitors) LB- process
worksheets
Rewarding
Determine rewards - stakeholders -
community - residents - visitors Logic
Models - outputs (what we do) - outcomes
(behavior changes or what happens as a
result) - impacts (benefits to the community or
community resources)
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Thematic

• Research-based
• Ausubel (1960)
• Thorndyke (1979)
• Miller (1954)
• Cowan (2000)

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Traits of a Theme

• Complete Sentence - idea or message
• Answers So what?
• Connects tangibles to intangibles (universals)
• Specific and interesting

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Getting Started

• Whose project is it?
• What results are desired?
• Benefits (impacts) to the community or resources?
• Visitor behavior (outcomes) that will support
  benefits?
• How do we achieve those results?
• What media (outputs) to use?

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For More Information

• Put the HEART back in your Community
  (heartfeltpublications.com)
• Interpretive Planning The 5-M Model for
  Successful Planning Projects (www.interpnet.com)
• National Association for Interpretation
  (www.interpnet.com)
• Tim Merriman and Lisa Brochu (naiexec_at_aol.com,
  naiprograms_at_aol.com)