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Dec 01, 2008
ECF09 is Open for Applications
ECF09 takes place in 4 months from 31 March to 1 April in Oxford, UK. There is space for 125 people (last year 115) in the lovely St Anne's College again. The price goes up 1 January 2009, so apply now.
Apply Now
For all the people who have been emailing, phoning and skyping me about when applications for the 2009 eCampaigning Forum will open, this one is for you. Apply now at http://apply.ecampaigningforum.com
Topic Ideas
The 'shell' of the 2009 event is up, but as usual, it is up to everyone interesting in attending to help shape the event. Some of my thoughts are:
- Have one focus on 'learning from and for elections'.
Since ECF08 occurred, we have had national elections in a number of countries, most notably the USA where the winning candidate (Obama) made extensive use of e-campaigning strategy and practices. In June 2009 there will be EU elections and there are rumours that this will also coincide with a UK election.
So for those preparing to influence political party agendas in the lead up to an election, we can share how you can do it online. Furthermore everyone can learn from the experiences in recent past elections too. - Have a second focus on corporate campaigning.
Corporate campaigning is rising up the agenda for many campaigning organisations again (and never left the agenda for others), so we can revisit this topic last explored in the 2002 eCampaigning Forum.
Given the deep financial crisis everyone is being dragged into, we could also explore a strategy for eCampaigning in the recession.
Beyond Topics
We can also explore some ways of organising the event to make it even more valuable for participants. Some ideas include:
- Using Mon 30 March for an 'eCampaigning Peer Advice day' (eCampaigning Surgery in British English): a day where experienced practitioners sit one-to-one with more novice practitioners to advise them and experienced practitioners can sit one-to-one with fellow experienced peers to ask for advice.
- Fringe Meetings: pre and post meetings where select groups of participants meet. Last year, Oxfam and GCAP both held one to have more focused time with others in their network.
As always, the eCampaigning Forum event is owned by everyone who participates and I see my role as ensuring it happens and has a framework to be useful for improving your eCampaigning. so if you have ideas, raise them on the eCampaigning Forum network list, Facebook group or the ECF09 Wiki.
