Choose-Your-Own-Engagement: Sacramento’s Missing Middle Outreach

The City of Sacramento's Missing Middle Housing (MMH) initiative aims to address housing affordability and diversity by introducing smaller-scale, multi-unit housing types in predominantly single-family neighborhoods. During the first phase of community outreach in Fall 2022, the City and its consulting team executed a hybrid engagement strategy designed to educate, inform, and solicit meaningful feedback from a broad spectrum of community stakeholders. Konveio's digital engagement platform was central to this effort.

Challenge

Sacramento needed to reach a wide and diverse population to build awareness and gather input on potential housing strategies. The challenge was to do so in an inclusive, scalable, and convenient way that met people where they were, both physically and digitally. The City also sought a streamlined way to store and analyze feedback collected across multiple engagement formats.

Solution: A Three-Pronged Hybrid Approach

A key innovation in Sacramento's Outreach Phase One was its blended strategy that presented a single set of content - a "Roadshow Package" of presentation boards, videos, and surveys - across three unique engagement avenues:

In-Person Workshops: Two all-day open house events (one each in North and South Sacramento) offered poster boards, project videos, and staff available to answer questions. Participants were encouraged not only to leave sticky notes and dot-votes but also to use their phones to submit feedback directly on Konveio. Staff later digitized physical input and uploaded it into the Konveio platform to centralize analysis.
Live Zoom Meetings: Two half-day virtual workshops mirrored the in-person events. After brief live introductions by project leaders, attendees were directed to explore the presentation boards and provide input independently through Konveio. This ensured access for residents unable to attend in person.
Online Engagement Period: Following the live events, the City launched a two-week open engagement period on Konveio. Users could navigate a structured, interactive agenda that allowed them to select topics of personal interest. This "choose-your-own-adventure" design maximized user agency and engagement depth.

All input, regardless of format, was captured and stored within the Konveio platform, enabling efficient use of AI-powered tools for synthesis and reporting.

The Roadshow Package included:

Informational posters on the MMH concept, demographic/housing trends, and Sacramento-specific context
Videos introducing MMH concepts and explaining why change is needed
Before-and-after visualizations of MMH typologies
Surveys and informational posters embedded into the Konveio platform

Results

Total Reach: Approx. 350-400 participants during October 2022 engagement activities.

"Overall, we reached 350-400 different people (!) over the course of October through the various engagement formats we utilized including in-person and virtual. Those are great numbers and I believe we were able to reach a wide range of different stakeholders and viewpoints as well." — Project Manager, City of Sacramento

Participation by Format:

In-Person Events: 57 attendees
Zoom Events: 45 participants
Online Konveio Platform: Over 388 participants during the two-week open engagement window

This distribution confirmed that most participants opted to engage asynchronously, reinforcing the value of Konveio's flexible digital platform. Hundreds of comments, dot-votes, and survey responses were collected. All feedback was integrated into Konveio for analysis.

Impact

Feedback helped identify key concerns such as neighborhood character, infrastructure capacity, and housing affordability. This input was crucial in shaping materials for Outreach Phase Two.

The hybrid strategy allowed Sacramento to:

Maximize accessibility across digital and physical platforms
Centralize all input in one analysis-ready location
Increase participation, especially online, without duplicating materials or staff effort
Use Konveio’s tools to make participant feedback visible, transparent, and actionable

By leveraging Konveio, the City of Sacramento successfully launched a scalable, inclusive engagement effort that created a strong foundation for further community collaboration around Missing Middle Housing.

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