With extensive experience in public participation, stakeholder collaboration, and engagement strategy, founder Chris Cannon is one of only 12 Americans currently holding the prestigious Public Participation Practitioner Certification (CP3) from the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2).  He has directed and led stakeholder and community engagement efforts for major projects across the United States to ensure that public voices are meaningfully integrated into decision-making, leading to more impactful outcomes.

Expertise includes stakeholder mapping, equitable engagement strategies, conflict resolution, and collaborative facilitation. Project work involves tailored engagement strategies, from interactive public workshops and focus groups to digital engagement tools and one-on-one stakeholder outreach.

The end goal is not only effective immediate conversations, but ensuring that all conversations work towards a long-term relationship between communities and decision-makers.

Project experience:

Statewide and Regional Visioning & Planning Initiatives

• For state government and regional agencies, developed and implemented stakeholder-driven planning processes for community development, transportation, land use, and economic development strategies, ensuring broad public participation and diverse representation.

Engagement for Public Policy and Infrastructure

• Designed and led public engagement efforts for major infrastructure investments, policy updates, and planning processes, leveraging interactive workshops, online tools, and multilingual outreach to maximize accessibility.

Organizational Stakeholder Mapping & Engagement Strategy

• Created stakeholder engagement frameworks for municipalities, regional agencies, and private organizations, identifying key influencers and underrepresented groups aligned with engagement strategies to build comprehensive participation models.

Equity-Focused Engagement

• Specialized in ensuring historically underserved communities are engaged meaningfully through targeted outreach strategies, partnerships with local organizations, and culturally responsive facilitation techniques.

Consensus-Building & Collaborative Decision-Making

• From neighborhood level programs to statewide programs, facilitated multi-stakeholder dialogues to align diverse perspectives, resolve conflicts, and shape strategic priorities.

Engagement Evaluation & Impact Measurement

• Developed custom evaluation frameworks to measure the effectiveness of public participation efforts, ensuring that stakeholder feedback is directly reflected in policy recommendations and project decisions.

International Project experience:

IAP2 Spectrum Evolution – International Engagement Project (Active Global Project)

• Served on the three-member international Project Team tasked with evolving the IAP2 (International Association for Public Participation) Spectrum of Public Participation, a global tool for strategic engagement planning that has served engagement practitioners around the world since the 1990s.

With a deep background in community development, economic revitalization, and creative economy leadership, founder Chris Cannon has worked across local, regional, and state agencies to design engagement-driven economic development strategies. His work has supported business districts, tourism initiatives, downtown revitalization efforts, and arts-based economic development.

Chris specializes in place-based economic strategies that align local identity, community engagement, and sustainable development goals. Expertise includes equitable development, public-private partnership facilitation, creative economy investment, and arts-led revitalization strategies.

Each of these projects involved collaborative engagement with local stakeholders, ensuring that economic and cultural development efforts were community-driven and sustainable.

Project Experience:

Statewide Projects

• For a state economic development agency, designed and executed strategies to align tourism, arts, and economic development with local and regional priorities.
• For a state community development agency, facilitated statewide partnerships between local governments, businesses, and economic development organizations.

Regional Projects

• As the leader of a non-profit, led regional economic development in the creative economy integrating cultural investment, workforce development, and tourism strategies. Facilitated cross-sector collaboration between arts organizations, local businesses, and economic development agencies to drive sustainable community investment and shape place-based economic strategies.
• For a state economic and community development agency, led community-driven revitalization efforts focused on small business support, downtown redevelopment, and regional economic growth initiatives.

Community Improvement District & Downtown Development Authority Projects

• For a community district facilitated stakeholder engagement and communication efforts to ensure that business, government, and community interests were incorporated into planning.
• For a community improvement district, facilitated strategic planning for biannual organizational objective setting.
• For a community improvement district, managed successful multi-year expansion of a community improvement district to educate potential new members, coordinate expansion areas, and create consent among property owners.
• For a community district, developed a place-based engagement strategy to align economic and infrastructure investment with community branding and identity.

With extensive experience in engagement for transportation planning and mobility strategies, founder Chris Cannon has led stakeholder and community engagement for high-profile transportation projects across the United States. His work has led to community-driven solutions by integrating data-driven insights with equitable engagement strategies to assist decision-makers in leading both planning and infrastructure projects.

Chris has worked across all types of transportation projects including freight planning, transportation demand management (TDM), transit accessibility, and branding for transportation districts.

Each of these projects involved tailored engagement, from in-depth stakeholder mapping to interactive workshops and public outreach, ensuring that transportation projects are not just technically sound but also responsive to the communities they serve.

Project Experience:

Regional Projects

• For a Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Freight Plan, developed and implemented a stakeholder engagement framework to integrate public and private sector input into freight and logistics planning and facilitated regional discussions with business leaders, local governments, and community organizations to shape long-term freight policy.
• For a Metropolitan Planning Organization, facilitated a regional engagement process for the development of a transportation demand management (TDM) strategy that aligns with sustainability goals and regional mobility initiatives.

City / County Projects

• For a City Government, designed and executed engagement strategies to incorporate resident and stakeholder feedback into the city’s transportation safety planning with a focus on equity-driven engagement to ensure that historically underserved communities had a voice in shaping mobility improvements.
• For a City Government, designed and executed a multimodal transportation engagement strategy, incorporating transit, biking, walking, and commuter programs to enhance mobility options.

Community Improvement Districts and Private Developments

• For a private development, executed community engagement strategies for a premier mixed-use development to optimize connectivity and transportation accessibility.
• For a community improvement district, engaged corporate, community, and public stakeholders in identifying first/last mile transit solutions to improve accessibility in one of Atlanta’s busiest commercial districts.
• For a transportation management organization, developed and led a youth engagement program to understand the complex issues facing student transportation.