At the Campaigning Forum, you set your agenda and we help you find others who share it. Speakers and panels are there to provoke thought. Result: you learn more and connect with more people. This is the way events should be.

Theme: Campaigning in a world of fear mongering and fake news

In the last years, there has been a dramatic change in tone in countries around the world as political leaders are elected who may undermine decades of progress. One analysis of this is that growing numbers of people have been left behind and are expressing their frustration via the ballot box. Yet this frustration is being better mobilised by extremist groups like the far right despite through fear and lies. Could this be because most campaigning groups are content to engage only those convinced? What about the larger group of undecided? How are people's opinions set sustained? At the 2019 Campaigning Forum we'll be exploring how to get better at engaging more people and sustaining that support!

Event impact: incubator for change initiatives

Every year, ECF event participants leave the event and go on to have an amazing impact with their campaigning. They do this not only because they are amazing campaigners, but also because of people they connect with to learn from and work with beyond the event. This is how ECF has always been designed: as an incubator for change initiatives.

Focus: participants, not speakers

Most events used speakers as bait to attract paying 'attendees'. ECF is participant-focused: it is designed to be the most effective and natural learning and networking environment for the participants. This means you should focus on three things in deciding to participate:

1. Your learning goals: What do you want/need to learn?
2. Who is coming (see the latest list): Are there other people coming to the event who you can learn from?
3. Your contribution: What experiences and perspectives are you bringing and do you wish to present them?

The role of the organisers is to create the right mix of people for amazing learning to occur and to ensure this process is well facilitated. The role of speakers is to stimulate you and provide a common experience for discussing with others.

Who should come?

21st campaigning is increasingly shown to be successful not because a team of campaign experts run it, but by project teams with diverse expertise, often campaigners, fundraisers, volunteer managers, media officers, policy experts, digital experts/innovators and beyond. The Campaigning Forum is one of the few events that brings this mix of people together to connect, share and learn from each other on how to influence change.

The Campaigning Forum runs on ‘Chatham House Rules’ (= nothing is attributed without permission) so everybody can freely talk about their failures and successes.

If there is a topic you’re itching to learn about or to share, come along and suggest the session. The Campaigning Forum is the place to find others who share your interests.

Agenda

In 2019, there will be a dedicated slot for presentations and open space sessions about having a campaigning impact, specifically:

1. Deepening and building political engagement amongst supporters
2. Effective influencing strategies
3. Getting supportive media coverage
4. Developing and sustaining local influencer communities

Mon Apr 8	Pre Event Courses
09:00-17:30 Oxford & London	Courses Planning effective campaigns by Chris Rose (Oxford) How to change the world with content strategy by Julius Honnor and Laura Robertson (London) How to make partnerships work really well by Mike Zelder (Oxford) Google Grant Ads Intensive Clinic by Jean O'Brien (London)
18:00-19:30	'Open Space Leadership' briefing This informal pre-dinner session will offer the chance to get the ball rolling and start to gather ideas and proposals for Open Space sessions. Join us to: share ideas and tips on successful Open Space groups review the potential agenda topics and themes that emerge from the participant questionnaires with a fun topic-sorting exercise help start to shape the Campaigning Forum agenda, working in groups to start developing session proposals. Open to all, though a working knowledge of Open Space methodology will be assumed.
19:30-20:30	Dinner: Kick-start connections and conversations with Campaigning Forum participants (Keble College dining room)
21:00+	Connect to kick-start connections and conversations (Keble College pub)
Tue Apr 9 Oxford	Campaigning Forum 2019 Day One
Sponsored by
Time	Summary
07:30	A morning walk or run for early risers in beautiful Oxford or Oxford University Parks. Meet at Keble College main reception
08:00	Participants in on-site accommodation: Breakfast & registration & discussion (Dining Hall)
08:45	Participants in off-site accommodation: registration, coffee/tea, informal discussions
09:00	Welcome, introduction and agenda review (Room: Arco)
09:15	Warm-up activities and speed networking (Room: Arco)
10:00	Introduction to Open Space (Room: Arco)
10:15	Open Space Knowledge Exchange A (Room: Various)
11.15	Coffee/tea break (Room: Arco)
11:45	Plenary: State of the nation - Just how divided are we, and how do we build bridges? Rosie Carter, HOPE not Hate Room: O'Reilly Theatre
12:30	Lunch (Dining room)
13:30	Peer Presentations (Room: Various) Communicating on Migration and Rights: Testing Digital Engagement and Messaging - Glyn Thomas Using Artificial Intelligence for smarter communication - Graham Covington (Engaging Networks) Campaigning in a developing civil society: experiences from Chile - Leslie Tapia Veas How to harness the incredible power of your supporter base - Lucy Bailey (Which?) 'Atlas of Utopias'/ Transformative Cities initiative - Melissa Koutouzis (Transnational Institute (TNI)) More to be confirmed based on participant contributions (participants propose a presentation in the application or later)
14:30	Open Space knowledge exchange B (Room: Various)
15:30	Coffee/tea break (Room: Various)
16:15	Open Space knowledge exchange C  (Room: Various)
17:15	Ignite talks (7 minutes each) Room: O'Reilly Theatre: Inefficient Activism (Sarah Corbett, Craftivist Collective) What's your point?: Looking to history for lessons on creating simple, compelling messages for your cause (Catherine Joyce) Plastic free periods campaign (Jasmine Tribe, City to Sea) What we learnt from our AI powered Virtual Assistant chat bot (Karina Brisby, Versus Arthritis) How to generate video ideas that will really engage audiences (Richard Roaf, Alter Eco) A year of positive news: charting the development and launch to The Rooftop - Simon Francis (Campaign Collective) Cancelled?: 5 things I’ve learned from 500,000 campaign actions (Rebecca Turner, more onion) More to be confirmed based on participant contributions (participants propose a presentation in the application or later)
18:30	Speed Pitching & Apero (Room: Arco) Service providers and consultants tell you what they offer, answer your questions and/or take your feedback. 5 minutes per table then rotate. Free drinks (wine, beer, soft drinks) Engaging Networks - Graham Covington Care2 - Rhiannan Sullivan more onion - Rebecca Turner VideoRev & Alter Eco - Richard Roaf campaignfilm - Andrew Davies ControlShift - Mikey Franklin Thinking Doing Changing - Natasha Adams FairSay - Duane Raymond ...more to be confirmed
20:00	Dinner (Dining room)
21:00+	Keble College Pub
Wed Apr 10	Campaigning Forum 2019 Day Two
Time	Summary
07:30	A morning walk or run for early risers in beautiful Oxford or Oxford University Parks. Meet at Keble College main reception
08:00	Participants in on-site accommodation: Breakfast & registration & discussion (Dining room)
08:45	Participants in off-site accommodation: registration, coffee/tea, informal discussions
09:00	Day two agenda review, pulse check and agenda setting (Room: Arco)
09:30	Peer Presentations (Room: Various) Calling Power by Its Name: contributions to psychosocial thought and practice from Latin America. (Marcela Lopez Levy) Getting punched in the face: what to do when your campaign fails right at the start (Rachel Collinson) Mobilising at scale: digital user journeys, savvy tech and clever project management (Georgina Laming) How can small organisations punch above their campaigning weight? (Ellen Lees, We Own It) Email Deliverability Masterclass (Gwynne Dixon, Engaging Networks) When two become one: How agile enabled Versus Arthritis to build their new website and manage their legacy digital platforms when they merged from Arthritis Care and Arthritis Research UK with a team spread across multiple locations. - Karina Brisby (Versus Arthritis) More to be confirmed based on participant contributions (participants propose a presentation in the application or later)
10:15	Open Space knowledge exchange D (Room: Various)
11:15	Coffee/tea break
11:45	Plenary speaker: How social change is happening today that can strengthen civil society’s future efforts? Chloe Hardy, Director of Policy & Communications (The Sheila McKechnie Foundation) Room: O'Reilly Theatre
12:30	Lunch (Dining room)
13:30	Open Space knowledge exchange E (Room: Various)
14:30	Coffee/tea break (Room: Arco)
15:00	Teach In: share skills or knowledge with others. (Room: Various) Nick Spooner (Hope Not Hate) Google Grant Ads - 12 tips and hacks to make them bring in a return (Jean O'Brien) Form optimisation for online campaigning and fundraising (Rebecca Turner, more onion) How to create viral videos and a video strategy to win campaigns (Richard Roaf, Alter Eco) More to be confirmed based on participant contributions (participants propose a presentation in the application or later)
16:30	Ignite Talks (7 min each) Room: O'Reilly Theatre: Lived experience in campaigning: what, why and how - Brendan Chivasa & Eve Jackson (Mencap) Mothers Rise Up: a grassroots movement fighting climate change - Mariam Kemple (Mothers Rise Up) The robots are our friends (or why marketing automation makes people happier - Keira Roth (Engaging Networks) Responsive digital campaigning: An overview of the Check Out campaign - Sharon Natt (Amnesty International UK) More to be confirmed based on participant contributions (participants propose a presentation in the application or later)
17:30	Event formally ends
19:00+	Dinner and drinks in Oxford: Self-organised for those staying around
Thu Apr 11	Post Event Courses
09:00-17:30 London	Courses Develop a digital strategy everyone believes in by Branislava Milosevic (London) The Power of Story by Brian Fitzgerald and Lucy Taylor (London)

How the agenda works

Many times when you reflect on the conference you realise that the best bits were chatting to people during the coffee break or in a pub. So at Campaigning Forum, slots (time and room) are provided to have your own discussions with other people at the conference without feeling that you are missing scheduled sessions. In fact, that is the majority of the event. Its called open space (see the methodology).

2019 participants so far

Campaigning Forum History

Campaigning Forum started as the eCampaigning Forum (ECF) event in 2002 organised by Duane Raymond, then Oxfam's eCampaigning Manager. It evolved a highly anticipated and influential annual event plus a dynamic and highly active ECF global community that grows daily and has inspired similar events around the world like ECF Europe in Berlin, re:campaign in Berlin, Fwd in Australia and Camp16 in The Netherlands

Over the last decade, digital has shifted from a specialist role and an essential tool in campaigning and organisations. Campaigning Forum has consistently been ahead of this shift, and in 2018 is organised around key aspects of modern organisations: digital leadership, campaigning, fundraising, volunteering, media engagement and policy research and looking to the emerging trends. The aim is to bring together increasing diverse participants who share broadly similar goals around improving our world and connect them, help them learn from one another and inspire them to think beyond their current practices, roles and plans.