It was great to welcome the Orton Family Foundation to EchoDitto recently. The Orton Family Foundation helps small cities and towns adopt land-use planning that engages a broad base of local citizens in order to maintain the ‘heart and soul’ of those communities.

Having spent several years coordinating meetings and conferences, I learned that you could significantly alter the way attendees interacted through minor tweaks to the design setup. I recall many instances where the simple act of moving a chair could either encourage group conversations, or shut it off altogether.

Over the years, I have noticed how a similar dynamic is at play through the design of our built environment - determining whether people would likely drive or walk, which side of the street they would walk on, and who they were likely meet along the way. This is very exciting and shows the ways in which creative land-use design can be used in building communities.

As people have adopted social media technologies, it has been fascinating to watch as these technologies transformed the way conferences run. Twitter hash tags allow for greater participation and collaboration. Webcasts, video sharing, picture sharing and slide sharing allow for easy, often instantaneous transmission beyond the conference room. This technology has made it so much easier to find, participate in and contribute to conferences of interest. I am excited to see these technologies harnessed to produce similar results in community planning.