On Saturday, the City of Ames hosted Play Ames, the community engagement festival, to engage with unrepresented groups within the City of Ames. 

The festival took place at four different locations around Ames as a collaboration between the City of Ames and Iowa State University. The event had unique activities, as well as city council members stationed at each location.

Volunteers and Iowa State University students organized the festival. People of all ages came to participate in the different available activities.

“We’re having a lot of people drop by who wouldn’t have otherwise sought anything out, and hopefully they’re learning a little bit about different interesting activities and a little bit about Ames,” said Kelly Diekmann, the planning and housing director for the City of Ames.

Diekmann was at the East Seventh Street location where he was interacting and conversing with members of the Ames community.

There was a virtual reality station at this location. Participants had a chance to play Skyline, an online urban planning game.

One of the goals of this event was to educate and expose people to modern technologies. Along with virtual reality, they also had a 3D printer that engineered different kinds of 3D objects.

This location promoted the use of an app known as ArcGIS collector to engage with community members. This app allows Ames residents to photograph and catalog benches in and around the City of Ames that anyone can later view.

Fatema Nourin, a graduate student in community and regional planning, was the East Seventh Street location coordinator. She said one of the objectives of this event was to experiment with different engagement strategies.

“We are testing which engagement works the best,” Nourin said. “So, which playful engagement method attracts people the most.”