Dave Briggs

I’m going to be facilitating an online conference with Steve, Ingrid and others, which will be all about encouraging councillors to make better use of social web technology.

It will be happening on a Community of Practice, meaning that there is no limit on how many people can be involved, and no travelling either!

Here’s a quick outline of some of the discussion points:

• What are councils and councillors doing with social media?
• How can its use help communities and citizens make connections to local public services and the decisions that affect our everyday lives?
• How can social media support empowerment, engagement and improvement?
• What are the risks involved in these new ways of communicating?
• How can councils and councillors get started?

Some of the speaker involved are:

• Councillor Richard Kemp, of Liverpool City Council, Deputy Char of the LGA Executive and Leader of the LGA Liberal Democrat Group
• Councillor James Cousins, of the London Borough of Wandsworth and co-founder of the Cllr Tweeps site
• Dominic Campbell of FutureGov Consultancy
• Shane McCracken of Gallomanor and CivicSurf (blogging mentor project for councillors)
• Stuart Bruce, Wolfstar PR, former councillor
• Hugh Flouch of Haringey Online (hyper-local networking site)
• Simon Wakeman, Head of Marketing at Medway Council

It’s happening between 6 and 8 April. It’s going to be awesome.