Offer beer, appetizers and prizes and they will come.

Offer an open house in a boring venue and they won’t.

Last week’s public engagement at the Firehall Brewery was, at first glance, a little odd considering the topic – Oliver’s downtown action plan.

It was overcrowded, too loud and too hot. The sardine-like environment may have raised the eyebrows of the fire marshal, but luckily the fire exit door was nearby.

It was difficult to hear the person next to you as they tried to express their ideas, and you couldn’t move without bumping into someone and possibly spilling their prized beer.

But guess what? The open house was damn successful.

In the past the Town has been lucky to attract 10 people to its open houses. Sometimes they only saw half a dozen. Admittedly, these meetings were rather boring; you came in, talked to the consultants, sat down and listened to their spiel, asked questions and went home.

But last week Town staff and the consultant were clever holding the venue in the Firehall Brewery social room. Who wouldn’t drop by if craft ale, appetizers and prizes were offered?

One lady said she couldn’t understand why a more appropriate venue wasn’t considered, noting the brewery room was too small and dark for such an important engagement.

Maybe so, but more than 60 people showed up to take part in the event. And most if not all got involved in the trivia games. They were given these small remotes that allowed them to answer on-screen questions about what they would like to see downtown.

Chief Administrative Officer Cathy Cowan even made sure the Chronicle editor had a remote in order to play the games.

Meanwhile, people quaffed their beers (on their own dime) and ate cheese and meat to their heart’s content. It was great, if you liked that crowded atmosphere. The stick-in-the-muds stayed home, which was probably a good thing.

The Town had achieved its goal by receiving tremendous feedback on its “dotmocracy” boards, where people placed dots next to their favourite ideas.

Unfortunately, there is still a lot of apathy out there, so municipalities must think of new ways to engage the public. If that means offering beer and food in a hip place to be, you better stock up on those things.

Too bad there wasn’t a dance floor.

Lyonel Doherty, editor