Engaging with consumers, community and addressing equity in research can inadvertently become a ‘tick-box exercise’, due to the deadlines of grant writing, limited resource, or lack of understanding of community perspectives. The process of developing genuine meaningful engagement with communities takes time, and to partner with community often requires a shift in methodologies and research agendas. Drawing on experience establishing a community-based healthy lifestyle program, Yvonne will share the team’s experiences engaging with communities over the past decade both in Aotearoa New Zealand and emerging relationships in Australia. She will share mistakes made, lessons learned, what the team now does differently, equity considerations and what could be done better. Trans-Tasman differences in terms of community and consumer engagement will be explored, with some potential strategies for meaningful engagement with consumers and communities through the research journey.