Without a Yard

Gawking around downtown LA, staring up at the oddly familiar buildings, such as the iconic HQ of Capitol Records,  reinforces the trope that huge differences exist – architecturally, culturally sociologically – among the two coasts.  Politically, they’re often clumped together, as a blue bastion where liberal-minded/creative class caricatures perform a post-grad pilgrimage, but there is larger difference in the pace of life & attitude re. work than I imagined (or expected from the Canuck TO vs. Van distinctions).  Just a couple days ago, I was gawking at another capitol building, in DC, as an inauguration stage was being built, AIDS-awareness protesters milled around & security detail amiably chatted with tourists.  What a difference a ‘miracle of human flight’ trek across the continent makes.

In Washington, I was very lucky to participate & observe thoughtful conversations with/among poli-web pioneers, campaign vets & community organizers, who are assessing the impact of the recent American election.  Speaking with people who had first-hand experience in mobilizing groups through web-based communications strategies will always be inspiring.  (If you’d like to view first-hand accounts about the campaign & intelligent assessments of how the media framed Obama’s successful execution of a thorough web/grassroots strategy – I’d highly recommend you go here, the Internet Advocacy Roundtable page from the Centre for American Progress to download this video from their panel last week.)

In LA, I’ll be learning from creative mavens, cultural contributors & tech-savvy entrepreneurs – who are creating ‘meaningful media‘ (to swipe the name of an actual interviewees company…) to engage audiences & eventually affect social change.

I’ll back blog the best of NYC & DC – in terms of quoteable quotes & anecdotal gems, but true end-game is a SlideShare version that combines key learnings across the sectors, cities & interviews.  The deck’ll’be anchored the eAdvocacy theme: developing a toolkit that’s customizable for an organization’s needs & establishing a set of standards to execute a thorough digital strategy (integrated *seamlessly* with overall comms plan, of course) that encourages political engagement, social change, grassroots advocacy & in many cases fundraising.