Virtual meetings yield real results

by Donica Kaneshiro | June 16, 2020

Social distancing practices due to COVID-19 have changed the way most people work and spend time with others. But what happens when your work depends on spending time with others — informing communities about future projects and gathering feedback?

The pandemic inspired Hawaiian Electric’s community relations team to find new ways to meet with stakeholders and to share our vision for projects to help our company meet our renewable energy goals.

“One of the requirements of our proposed battery energy storage project was to host a community meeting,” Maui Community Relations Specialist Kuhea Asiu said. “We knew we needed to leverage what WebEx could offer and brought into communities the opportunity to engage with us.”

The team adapted its April public meetings on three islands into virtual meetings, which were promoted digitally for two weeks, then streamed via Facebook Live and broadcast on community television stations — Akaku on Maui, Olelo on Oahu and Na Leo TV on Hawaii Island — reaching thousands of viewers through the combination of platforms.

Prior to the meeting, the team posted a narrated version of the presentation on Hawaiian Electric’s webpage and shared the link with the neighborhood boards and elected officials.

The group played the prerecorded presentation during the meeting and hosted a live question-and-answer session. While it may not have felt as personal to be meeting online, the group felt some participants may have been emboldened by the ability to send questions via email, Facebook comment and WebEx Q&A chat window. They received about 30 questions per meeting, typical of an in-person community meeting.

While some people may not have the technology to attend virtual meetings, the online aspect opened the door for others.

Asiu shared: “I look forward to a time when we can host meetings in the traditional way, but I do hope that we will continue to make them accessible online as well. In consideration of our community members who want to be more informed and involved but have difficulty attending a meeting in person in the late afternoon or evening when they need to be at home with their family.”

All on the team agree that while in-person meetings and one-on-one interactions will always be essential to the work they do, video meetings have proven a powerful tool they can use to engage with the community.

“The main thing that our team learned from this was that we can still effectively get a message across without having to meet folks in person,” said Hawaii Island Community Consultant Darren Elisaga. “Will we still use these technologies? Definitely. It saved us a lot of time, cut the distance if somebody’s really far away from us, and of course kept us safe during a pandemic situation.”

The team’s efforts to adapt were rewarded as two of its proposed battery energy storage projects were among the 16 projects selected by the Request for Proposals (RFP) group.

“This was a classic example of what happens when one door closes and you find a new window of opportunity,” Asiu said.

Donica Kaneshiro is a communications consultant at Hawaiian Electric Company.