West Hollywood unveils "Hello WeHo" news hub and highlights digital tools used for WeHoPride

City of West Hollywood communications staff onstage at the Civic Leadership Academy described a suite of new and expanded tools designed to centralize and speed public information. Joshua Sher, the city's communications director, framed the work as part of a strategic "communications and community engagement" plan that aims to present city information with a single, consistent voice.

The department is finalizing a news hub called Hello WeHo to collect press releases, photos and videos in one place so residents "can scroll through some of the rest" and find event and program details more easily, Sher said. Staff said the site will include filters for trending topics, arts and culture and other city themes and will link to supporting Flickr photo albums and WeHoTV videos.

Erin Taylor, the city's media and marketing manager, used WeHoPride as a case study to show how outdoor advertising, transit-shelter placements, street-pull banners, paid social and influencer partnerships are combined to drive attendance and awareness. Taylor said the team prioritizes accessibility and search-engine optimization; she noted that the WeHoPride microsite added accessiBe functionality in 2024 to improve font and contrast controls for users.

Jason (the city's digital media officer) described Query, an AI chatbot the team launched as a short pilot for Pride weekend. "Query was kind of our first attempt at a public facing AI tool, and it went really well," Jason said. The team said they developed the widget quickly, fed it event schedules, road-closure and safety guidance and routed unanswered questions to staff. The presenters reported more than 8,000 user interactions with the widget during the five-day event window.

The public information officer noted large publicity numbers presented by the team during the session; the officer said the department's earned-media metrics for recent Pride activity were shown on slides (as presented by staff) to illustrate reach. Those slide figures were cited as city-provided estimates and were not independently verified in the session.

Staff said Hello WeHo and the improved city calendar will be deployed to make city communications easier to find and to reduce the need for residents to consult multiple platforms for official information. The communications team also said presentation slides and a digital copy of the full session will be made available to attendees after the event.

The city encouraged residents who want deeper involvement in city programs to sign up for emailed updates at weho.org/email and to follow the city's accounts across platforms for event alerts and program news.