The Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP) combined over a dozen planning efforts – often operating at cross-purposes – making it possible for New Orleanians to finally return to their city and begin rebuilding their lives.

This effort brought together thousands of citizens with planners and officials in an unprecedented grassroots effort that engaged the full diversity of the city. The UNOP was achieved because the right people were engaged – especially, and for the first time, displaced New Orleanians from across the country.

A key component of this effort was a Community Congress Summit supported by CoVision’s Council groupware system that was essentially a massive real-time dialogue between thousands of New Orleanians. It included large groups in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Houston, Memphis and Atlanta, and smaller groups in 16 libraries and other locations around the country – all connected together.

Participants at all locations were able to watch presentations and receive instructions from the central site in New Orleans via either a satellite feed or a webcast. Additionally all 2,400 participants sat at round tables equipped with Council laptops connected to the internet. Participants sat with 8 to 10 others and discussed the dire needs in New Orleans. The key ideas from their discussions were input into the CoVision laptop and sent to the Theme Team. All of the ideas from across the country were then read in real-time by this Team who summarized the major proposals and presented them back to the whole group. Ultimately each individual voted to decide collectively which proposals to accept.

This CoVision system in combination with webcasting and teleconferencing allowed remote participants to join into collaborative thinking processes with participants at the main meeting site. This ability to instantly hear from the whole group, distill out the key messages, and present them back for prioritization, was one of the keys to the success of the Community Congress and the plan overall.