Conveners

The producers of Web of Change at Hollyhock assembled a team of thought and action leaders who co-created last year's event.  Two convening teams - "WOC Partners" from the private sector and "WOC Leaders" who work inside NGO's - worked together to identify the key issues affecting our sector, reached out to leaders at the forefront of change, and connected their own networks to the broader WOC community.

2009 Co-conveners

Michael Silberman

Michael Silberman is a founding Partner of EchoDitto, a leading strategic online communications and technology team that works with its clients to leverage new media and participatory technologies to affect positive social and environmental change. He served as the 1Sky climate campaign's Internet Director during its first year, where he planned and implemented a successful nationwide internet organizing, communications, and fundraising strategy. Prior to EchoDitto, Silberman was the National Meetup Director for Howard Dean’s renowned presidential run in 2004, where he developed an online organizing and technology strategy that mobilized 189,000 volunteers in over 1,200 cities worldwide. Silberman is a frequent writer and speaker on the effective use of technology for converting online activity into real-world action.

Read more about Michael at EchoDitto.

Alia McKee Scott

Alia McKee Scott loves the challenge of creating online communities of engaged and inspired donors and activists. For the past 10 years, she’s been helping non profit clients innovate creative and successful online fundraising, advocacy and marketing campaigns. She is a principal at Sea Change Strategies, a strategic marketing and research consulting firm.

Currently she works with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Environmental Defense Fund, the International Rescue Committee, and Conservation International among others.

Alia holds a masters degree in public policy and communications from the LBJ School at the University of Texas at Austin.

Read more about Alia at Sea Change Strategies.

Gibrán X. Rivera

Gibrán X. Rivera is Senior Associate of the Interaction Institute for Social Change, where he focuses on the development of decentralized organizations and the application of network theory and emergence to the work of social change. Gibrán is a consultant, facilitator and a trainer committed to bringing forth the inner side of leadership among those of us who seek social transformation. Gibrán has been an organizer and an activist, he served as an Executive Director, worked as an entrepreneur and was a candidate the Boston City Council in what was widely recognized as a movement building campaign and a new approach to politics.

Read more about Gibran at the Interaction Institute.

Kety Esquivel

Kety Esquivel has over ten years of experience in the non-profit, private and political sectors. She directed Latino outreach for the Clark Presidential Campaign. Her work has taken her to China and Ethiopia with UNECA. She spent three years coaching executives on human capital and diversity in the US, Canada and Latin America. She is a published author and the founder of CrossLeft.org. She is a co-founder of the Institute of Progressive Christianity and the Sanctuary. Esquivel has served on several boards, including that of the Backbone Campaign and the New Leaders Council. She has been a speaker at Netroots Nation, SXSW and the Center for New Words.

Read more about Kety at the Huffington Post.

Sam Dorman

Tim Walker

Tim Walker is co-founder of Biro, a pioneering online creative firm that advises movement-leading organizations from around the world working for sustainability and social change. This include non-profits, charities, campaigns and campaigning green business.
Drawing on almost a decade of experience in field, Tim provides strategic council for the company's select tribe of long-term clients – including Greenpeace UK, 350.org, Global Zero and Brighter Planet – helping them grow their movements online.

Read more about Tim at Biro.

David Averill

For nearly ten years, David has managed a wide variety of website and database projects. He works closely with outreach staff, technical staff, and consultants, keeping an eye toward sustainability, quality, and fun. Before coming to Groundwire, David was the national program manager for Community Voice Mail, case manager at Northwest AIDS Foundation (Lifelong AIDS Alliance), and worked as an organizer for Montana Human Rights Network.

Dave lives in Seattle with his wife and three children.

WOC Producers:

Web of Change is produced and managed by the team at Communicopia in Vancouver, BC. To learn more about our organizing model and other people who make it happen please click here.

Jason Mogus

Jason Mogus is the founder of the Web of Change and the Social Tech Training, which for 9 years have supported community building in the social technology sector. He is a board member with BC Social Venture Partners, was a founding board member of Canadian Business for Social Responsibility and is a long time member of SVN.

Jason is the CEO of Communicopia. He leads online vision and strategy engagements for clients including BC Hydro, The Elders, Make Poverty History, Greenpeace Canada, UNICEF Canada, and the United Nations Foundation. A serial entrepreneur, Jason has held senior roles in technology start-ups since 1995.

Read more about Jason at Communicopia Internet.

Julia Watson

Julia Watson is Director of Operations and office empath at Communicopia Internet. A firm believer in the ability of humans to change world consciousness, she is keen to explore how Web 2.0 can affect social change.

As the former Program Director at Hollyhock, Canada's leading educational retreat centre, she scheduled approximately 100 programs and conferences each year, including Communicopia's Web of Change. Julia is a meditation teacher and shareholder and steward in the budding Lightwork Ecovillage on Gambier Island.

Ali Turnbull

As the Community Manager for Web of Change, Ali is inspired by the impact and scope of past Web of Change events and is keen to build the momentum for 2009's gathering.  To date, Ali has developed multi-faceted communications strategies for BCCA, The YES Camps, Post Carbon, and Findhorn.  Her knack for articulating complex concepts into plain language is an asset to each organization she works with.

Ali is a socially-conscious event organizer, facilitator and program developer with extensive experience running leadership retreats, Eco-Village trainings, as well as community and education programs that have focused on food security, co-operative social economies and values, environmental sustainability and group governance.

Though she hails from Scotland she has worked in Thailand, India, Russia and Spain and now resides in Vancouver, Canada.