ABOUT
MunicipalMatters
We believe that what goes on in cities, towns and regions across the country matters--municipalities matter.
Most of what touches people directly happens at the municipal level, but outside the largest Canadian cities, very little attention is given to local government decision-makers, and much is changing at this level.
Are these changes welcome? What do mayors, councillors, CAOs, managers and frontline staff at the municipal level care about? What keeps them up at night? And, what can we do better?
We want to amplify the voices of decision-makers and shed light on those, and more, questions.
Our Collaborators
Kent Waugh, Managing Partner
The W Group
Kent Waugh has 40 years of experience as a professional researcher and marketing strategist. In the past 15 years, Kent has focused on assisting local governments in building their community engagement capacity through employing e-communications programs, community engagement research panels and centralized research support programs. As another key aspect of data collection and management, The W Group builds customer satisfaction feedback programs to measure customer satisfaction and has a strong presence in the digitalization of data collection and process workflow discipline.
Kent was an early pioneer in the development and use of community engagement research panels:
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Serving as President & CEO of onemillioneyes.com in 1999, Kent established one of the first global online research panels consisting of 100,000 panelists from Argentina to Zaire.
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In 2006, Kent was a key player in developing the leading Canadian online research panel, the Angus Reid Forum, established by Angus Reid Strategies and Vision Critical.
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The Canadian Automobile Association awarded the British Columbia Automobile Association the most innovative application of technology for its research panel, Inside Track. Kent led the panel’s deployment and day-to-day operations.
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The W Group has managed the largest, longest-operating municipal-based Community Engagement Research Panel in North America.
Kent is often invited to present on innovative research and engagement programs such as at the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) North American conference, the Market Research & Intelligence Association national conference and numerous other local government association conferences.