Leaders Live debuts with City Council leader Q&A

The promo for the first Leaders Live session

The Lincolnite will hold a live Q&A session with the leader of the City of Lincoln Council on Monday, August 15, the first initiative of this kind in Lincolnshire.

We are currently polling our readers on questions for the council leader, Ric Metcalfe. The questions have already started pouring in through Facebook, Twitter, and a special form on the site, and will be answered live by Mr Metcalfe throughout August 15.

The live Q&A session will start at 9.30am, and readers will be able to ask follow-up questions to the council leader’s answers through social media channels. The questions and answers will be displayed in the style of a live blog on The Lincolnite, which will be publishing on the day from the offices of the City of Lincoln Council.

Daniel Ionescu, Managing Editor at The Lincolnite, said: “You always read about hyperlocal initiatives being looked down upon by local authorities, but this is fortunately not our experience. We secured a day-long live Q&A session with the City Council leader, and the online exclusive will be a first for Mr Metcalfe as well.

“Users of our iPhone and Android mobile apps will also be able to follow the session throughout the day, and they can even submit questions from within the app. This is the first of our Leaders Live initiative, and we will be looking to get on board more local leaders under this project.”

Chris Dunbar, Communications Manager at the City of Lincoln Council, said: “We’re really looking forward to taking part in the live Q&A with The Lincolnite.  It’s an interesting way to give local people the chance to talk directly to the leader of the council and have a two-way conversation.

“Social media is a growing tool for local authorities to reach a wide audience and we find Twitter particularly useful. Lincoln has a very active community on Twitter, and we use it regularly to speak to local people, businesses, partner organisations and opinion formers in the city.”

Councillor Ric Metcalfe, Leader of the City of Lincoln Council, said: “Having been a councillor in Lincoln for almost thirty years, I have seen communication methods change dramatically. I’m very excited about the Q&A – it sits directly in line with our priority of being a fit for purpose council, as it means I’ll be directly accountable to the people asking questions. I had some Twitter training recently and sent my first tweets. I’ve got to say, I find it absolutely fascinating – and a bit scary!”