That's a good question that I am always wondering about! It seems that people do not get involved until they can readily see how they will be negatively affected. It helps to be able to help people see how a proposal could affect them.

Don't forget that social media, by its nature, excludes low income and disadvantaged folk. Also, as heard at the conference, reach out to school kids, who must live with what we decide today.

Be sure not to schedule your public input meeting on a night when the Jazz, Utes or Cougars are playing.

I LOVED SLC's presentation at the conference, and hope to implement some of their ideas.

Small, very focused, neighborhood gatherings where neighbors brainstorm their ideas, thoughts, etc on 3 or 4 basic questions.
First about their neighborhood and then moving quickly to tables to do the same about other neighborhoods they may not know as much about but the perspectives/observations they have are very interesting.

People are problem solvers by nature. If you give them an issue they will give you answers. If asked to respond generally about a project the most frequent response will be emotional/subjective in nature rather than objective.
Or you can tell the public that the meeting is private and they are not allowed. Then everyone will be curious and show up to the meeting just to demand that they be let in. Reverse psychology works every time.

We find the old fashion ways of notices in the mail and also putting door hangers with the notices at each residence have worked effectively

Beter technology use.

Several meetings divided into council district areas. This was done to solicit feedback on new general plan.

We also provided online surveys via the city's Facebook and twitter pages.