Virtual exhibitions for planning consultation
Create an always-available online exhibition that explains the proposal clearly, captures feedback from people who cannot attend a venue, and keeps evidence ready for the planning record.
What it helps you do
Reach more people without adding another venue date
Reach the silent majority
Give residents, consultees and stakeholders a clear route to engage in their own time.
Explain the proposal clearly
Turn exhibition boards, plans, FAQs and surveys into one guided digital journey.
Build planning-ready evidence
Capture visits, responses and themes in a format that supports consultation reporting.
How It Works
Three steps to your online consultation event
Design Your Exhibition Boards
Create individual digital exhibition boards for each aspect of your proposal. Upload images, site plans, CGI renders, and documents. Add text descriptions, embed videos, and include interactive elements like clickable hotspots and embedded surveys. Arrange your boards in a logical viewing order that guides visitors through the consultation material, just as you would lay out a physical exhibition room.
Publish and Share
Publish your virtual exhibition on your branded consultation microsite with a single click. Share the link via email newsletters, social media, council websites, and QR codes on printed materials. The exhibition is mobile-responsive from day one, so residents can visit on any device. Set opening and closing dates to match your consultation timeline, and update boards at any point if proposals evolve.
Collect Feedback and Analyse
As visitors browse your exhibition, they leave comments on individual boards, complete embedded surveys, and interact with your content. Every interaction is captured in your dashboard with full analytics — visitor counts, time spent per board, document downloads, and survey responses. Export everything for your consultation report, or generate committee-ready summaries with built-in reporting tools.
Use Cases
Perfect for every type of consultation event
Virtual exhibitions work for any consultation where you would traditionally display information on boards and invite the public to view and comment. The digital format adds interactivity and reach that physical events simply cannot match, while the familiar board-by-board layout ensures residents feel oriented and comfortable navigating the material. Whether your consultation is led by a local authority, a planning consultancy, a housing association, or a developer, the online exhibition format adapts to your needs and scales to your audience.
Major Planning Applications
Present site plans, elevations, CGI renders, and design rationale across multiple exhibition boards. Let residents comment on specific aspects of the proposal.
Neighbourhood Plans
Walk communities through draft policies, site allocations, and design codes with an accessible online exhibition that reaches beyond the usual parish meeting attendees.
Transport and Highways Schemes
Display proposed route options, cross-sections, and traffic modelling data. Embed surveys on each board to capture preferences for specific design elements.
Housing Developments
Showcase masterplans, housing mix, landscape strategies, and community facilities. Interactive hotspots let visitors explore different parts of the development in detail.
Local Plan Consultations
Present strategic site options, spatial strategies, and policy proposals across themed exhibition boards. Support Regulation 18 and 19 consultation stages with structured feedback collection.
Infrastructure and Regeneration
Share phasing plans, construction timelines, and community benefit proposals for large-scale regeneration, energy, or utilities projects.
Conservation and Heritage
Display historic maps, character area assessments, and proposed conservation boundaries. Collect views on management proposals and Article 4 directions.
Environmental Consultations
Present environmental impact findings, biodiversity net gain strategies, and sustainability assessments with supporting data and visualisations.
See how virtual exhibitions can support your next consultation
Book a demo to see how ConsultOnline can support your next planning consultation.
Core capabilities
Everything needed for an online exhibition
A concise set of tools for presenting the scheme, answering common questions and collecting usable consultation feedback.
Planning evidence
Why it matters for planning
A virtual exhibition is not just a digital version of a room. It helps planning teams reach people who would never attend a village hall, then records how they engaged and what they said.
That evidence can support a stronger Statement of Community Involvement by showing reach, accessibility, feedback themes and the steps taken to make consultation easier to take part in.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Ready to reach more of the community?
Book a demo to see how ConsultOnline can support your next planning consultation.
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