Tips for selling charrettes
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EmailOne of the most common questions we receive at NCI is how to convince a sponsoring agency or client to do a charrette for their project.
One of the most common questions we receive at NCI is how to convince a sponsoring agency or client to do a charrette for their project. Some sponsors are concerned that charrettes take too much time and/or are too expensive. Here are a few benefit statements for making the case to use a charrette.
- Charrettes save time and money by compressing project schedules, reducing rework and accelerating implementation. When someone questions the charrette budget a useful response for him or her to consider is “what will it cost you to do it twice?”
- Charrettes reduce total project meeting time. The charrette compresses months of seemingly endless meetings into a week or less.
- Charrettes make the best use of people’s time. Not everyone is at the charrette all the time. Most stakeholders are involved in two or three “feedback loops” throughout the course of a multiple-day charrette.
- Charrettes build long-term goodwill between a sponsor and the community. An atmosphere of goodwill supports a more positive and productive planning environment wherein worthy projects get approved quicker.
