You can sign up to the event here or by visiting our Facebook event page.
The Local, Social, Digital tour of the party political conferences joins Labour in Liverpool tomorrow lunchtime, with another impressive line-up of speakers. Tom Watson MP, Mark Ferguson (Editor of LabourList), Cllr Catherine McDonald (Lead Member for Children’s Services, London Borough of Southwark) will be joining Local, Social Digital hosts: our very own Dominic Campbell, Nathalie McDermott (and her video cameras) from On Road Media, and Kai Rudat from OPM.
Tom Watson MP, in his role as Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office under Gordon Brown, championed digital affairs. He promoted policies for open data and for the use of open source software within Government and created the post of Director of Digital Engagement. In the May 2010 election, Tom stood on a platform that called for reforms of the UK’s digital policie and these Digital Pledges are listed here on his blog.
Tom is well known for his blog and regular tweeting and has recently played a major role in the News International phone hacking scandal through his questioning of Rupert and James Murdoch, along with former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, as a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
Tom Watson's Blog - Teens page, a parody of politicians trying to connect with young people
Mark Ferguson is editor of LabourList, the Labour Party’s biggest e-network. Mark is also well known in the Twitter political landscape. He was previously a campaign organiser for the Labour Party in the London Borough of Islington.
Mark Ferguson's article on LabourList
Cllr Catherine McDonald is the lead member for Children’s Services at the London Borough of Southwark. Catherine was formerly the special adviser to Jim Knight (now in the House of Lords) when he was Minster for Employment and has worked at Ernst & Young and the National Audit Office. Catherine uses Twitter and other social media in her role as a local Labour councillor.
Cllr Catherine McDonald's Twitter page
We hope that this line up of speakers tempts you. However, this fringe meeting will not be following the traditional format of listening to the speakers talk and then being able to ask them a few questions from the floor. Local, Social, Digital meetings are audience led. The speakers will be sitting on tables with audience members discussing innovative ways of engaging citizens in democracy before any of the speech making kicks off. Interested? If you are at conference tomorrow, do pop in and join us. (The meeting is in the conference secure area, so a pass will be needed.)
Our final Local, Social Digital meeting will be held at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester on Sunday at 6pm. Rishi Saha (former Head of Digital Communications at 10 Downing Street) will be speaking. No conference pass needed. Please sign up for this event here.