The Canvas for Community Engagement

How we got here

CE Canvas grew from a simple observation after years working in community engagement: the tools available to practitioners were only solving part of the problem.

Our experience goes back to the early days of modern digital engagement. Charles Connell previously co-founded Social Pinpoint (now Social Point by Open Point), helping pioneer digital tools that transformed how organisations reach communities and gather input. But gathering input is only one part of engagement.

Engagement plans still lived in documents. Activities and stakeholders were managed across spreadsheets and disconnected tools. Feedback was scattered across systems, and reporting was often a major exercise at the end of a project.

There was no single workspace designed around the way community engagement actually works.

At the same time, Charles Connell and Colin Ellis were independently exploring how AI could support better engagement practice and reduce administrative work without replacing professional judgement. When they connected, they realised they shared the same vision.

CE Canvas was created to bring the entire engagement process together — from planning and delivery through analysis, outcomes and reporting — in one workspace built specifically for community engagement.

The practice the product is built on is written down in the Practice Hub: guides on strategy and frameworks, planning, delivery, reporting and responsible AI, by the founders and the advisory team.

Both founders presented Human vs. AI vs. AI: A Live Community Engagement Challenge at the IAP2 North American Conference in October 2026.