---
id: ch9-comic-in-the-room
type: spine
title: "In the room, but not heard (a comic)"
readingTime: 1
standalone: true
core: false
teaser: "Mallusjoki invited everyone. The women who ran rural event firms came, and said almost nothing. A workshop of their own changed the plan."
parent: null
diagram: comic-in-the-room-en
recallQ: "In the Mallusjoki case, why was inviting every stakeholder not enough, and what fixed it?"
recallA: "Women-led SMEs attended the formal consultations but were underrepresented in them, so their needs did not surface. A dedicated workshop for female entrepreneurs brought their needs (digitalisation support and access to micro-finance) into the Regional Action Plan."
highlights:
  - "Present is not the same as heard: women-led SMEs were in the room but underrepresented in formal consultation"
  - "A dedicated co-creation workshop brought digitalisation support and micro-finance into the RAP"
  - "In the multi-actor approach, the format decides who is heard, not just the invitation list"
status: accepted
concept: multi-actor-approach
lang: en
lens: finland
depth: intro
formalism: none
visuality: visual-first
lengthBand: tldr
genre: comic
state: edited
carriers: prose|diagram
---

Read the four panels first. They retell a lesson that D2.1 reports from the **Mallusjoki** pilot in Finland.

**What D2.1 documents.** Many women-led SMEs from the rural event industry were present at the pilot's consultations but underrepresented in them. The pilot organised a dedicated workshop for female entrepreneurs, and their needs, **digitalisation support** and **access to micro-finance**, went into the Regional Action Plan.

**What the drawing adds.** The faces, the lectern and the dot count (seven in the room, one who spoke) are illustration. D2.1 gives no attendance figures for this case.

**Why it matters.** Component 3 of the [multi-actor approach](#c/multi-actor-approach), participatory planning and decision-making, is about formats as much as invitations. The tier list says who should shape the plan; the format decides whose voice actually reaches it.

**Sources:**
- D2.1 Stakeholders identification (v2.0), the Mallusjoki prioritisation example and Annex C Tiered Stakeholder Engagement Examples — [PDF](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/docs/353/D2.1_Stakeholders_Identification_v2.0.pdf)