Communicopia

Life has been full this summer, especially because we recently took on a role helping Gregor Robertson and Vision Vancouver's exciting campaign to win the Mayor's and city council seats this November. Gregor is an old and dear friend (and client, we helped his Happy Planet in years past, though their current website is not ours) and he has demonstrated through the Vision nomination campaign that he may indeed be "Canada's Obama", a new kind of politician with an authentic style, a compelling vision, and the ability to run a very open, people-powered campaign that inspires people and motivates hundreds of volunteers to get involved in meaningful ways.

For research on Gregor's campaign we've been spending a lot of time on Obama's site. It is truly remarkable. Obama is not only the most compelling and articulate politician to come along in a generation, but he is a true "net roots" candidate who gets how how the web works and how to reach and move people in our busy modern world.

Last week we convened Canada's first ever intensive web training event for the social change sector. Called the Social Tech Training, the event was a collaboration between Web of Change, a series of events owned by the community but managed by Communicopia, and the social innovation group at MaRS, a new player in the Canadian social entrepreneurship scene.

The event was fantastic - a sold out crowd of 65 participants from across North America learned from nearly 30 of the best trainers, facilitators, and strategists in the growing "web 2 for social change" field. We had 3 days of presentations, sharing, leadership development, and fun in hot sunny Toronto.

The New York Times ran a story on Sunday about our Nothing But Nets campaign, saying that the $10 mosquito net to save a child in Africa message has created a "movement like a modern version of the March of Dimes" that is reaching and engaging young people in new ways rarely seen before. The populist campaign created by the United Nations Foundation - that we won a Webby Award for last year - still resonates with thousands of people across the US and worldwide who continue to raise money and awareness for the campaign through spontaneous fundraising events across the country.