Web of Change

Led by Jacqueline Voci, Chief story officer for Voci Communications

notes by Donna Barker

Voci works to help companies and organizations create, hopefully, wildly fabulous brand stories that engage with audiences on their terms and with their language to spark them to take action.

Group was interested in knowing how to deal with:
➢ Brand consolidation: different stories, same brand
➢ Many different audiences
➢ Identity crisis: who are we and are we who we think we are
➢ Evolving stories
➢ Process and making sure it resonates
➢ How membership can help tell the story
➢ Simplification of complex messaging
➢ How to tell stories that engage employees, from bottom to top
➢ Building the capacity for consistent storytelling within organizations – from press releases to fundraising

with Dave Robertson of Critical Mass

notes by Donna Barker

Brief, inaccurate history of interaction
2 people carrying out a transaction
Buying a computer in Brazil 10 years ago as case study: in person interaction with questions and finding out what the purchasers needs are to custom build the computer.

Buying a computer in Prince Rupert 10 years ago as case study: catalogue to guide first impression, call the vendor to have other questions answered.

Buying a computer today: most people in room have bought a PC online in the last 2 years. Salesperson is mediating purchasers with thousands of people a day who they never see face to face. The problem, if you can’t see who you’re talking to, this is what happens: the vendor goes through increasing degree of isolation from customers and don’t know who those customers are.

The first step is to be self-referential. “We need to build a site to sell computers and I think it should behave like this.” But it’s like looking into a mirror. You don’t see the millions of customers behind the mirror, you only see yourself.

Impact on the manufacturer and brand is that it compromises the loyalty of the relationship since people don’t get what they expected or need.

led by Liz Butler and Cristen Perks

Notes by Tate Hausman

Think of a campaign you've run or want to run

We all talked out our campaigns in 1 minute to one other person. Then shared how those discussions happened with a group.

Campaign strategy is NOT organizational strategy. An org should already have a strategic plan. And it also should have a separate plan for each campaign. The two together should be given to the technologist, to let him/her pick/build the right technology that helps both.

Liz then went through her PPT.

Mapping -- visually representing the problem / strategy / power structure -- is the most underutilized tool for campaigners. It's very very useful. Get the data to map through research.

It's very dangerous to lead this planning process with tactics, but very common.

Make sure that campaign tactics are aligned with overall organizational strategy, so that you win-win.

Tactics should increase in intensity -- build the pressure, don't put it all out there in the first shot.

Session facilitator: Michael Silberman, EchoDitto

notes by Jon Stahl

EchoDitto's practice for sharing innovation in their ~20 person organization: weekly, Monday-lunch "creative jam" sessions. Share interesting new tools, statistics, campaigns doing interesting things, etc. "skipping rocks" One hour.

1. One-minute summary
2. Two minutes of questions --- what does it do, how could we use this
in a campaign context.
3. Tag source URLs in del.icio.us (shared delicious account. Tag with
staff name.)
4. Lightly facilitated
5. They don't capture the discussion – only capture the sites via delicious.

They follow the rabbit trails for a couple of minutes.

With almost a month left to go before Web of Change 2007, we're delighted to find ourselves at capacity already. We're delighted because it means that we're gearing up for our biggest event yet – for four days packed with brilliant people, engaging conversation, lots of learning, and lots of fun.

Requests to attend are still arriving daily, and even as we're delighted to have a full event, we're disappointed to have to close our doors. So if you were hoping to attend this year, and didn't get registered in time, please send an email to [email protected]. We'll keep you posted as the next few weeks shake down.

Our draft agenda is now available. We've identified five key themes, and are in the process of deciding on the best sessions and the best leaders to bring those themes to life.

Likely sessions include:

• Leading with Strategy
• The Art of Building a Team
• Project Management
• Online/Offline Integration
• Cross Channel Campaigning (weaving Web 2.0 tools with offline events)
• Collaboration and Story-telling in Action
• What’s new, hot and worth paying attention to (and what is not worth your time or money)?

With so much innovation and growth all around us in our community of committed change agents, we feel privileged to have the opportunity to catalyze crucial conversations, and to make our work as a movement more useful, and more effective.