Communicopia

Last week we convened Canada's first ever intensive web training event for the social change sector. Called the Social Tech Training, the event was a collaboration between Web of Change, a series of events owned by the community but managed by Communicopia, and the social innovation group at MaRS, a new player in the Canadian social entrepreneurship scene.

The event was fantastic - a sold out crowd of 65 participants from across North America learned from nearly 30 of the best trainers, facilitators, and strategists in the growing "web 2 for social change" field. We had 3 days of presentations, sharing, leadership development, and fun in hot sunny Toronto.

The New York Times ran a story on Sunday about our Nothing But Nets campaign, saying that the $10 mosquito net to save a child in Africa message has created a "movement like a modern version of the March of Dimes" that is reaching and engaging young people in new ways rarely seen before. The populist campaign created by the United Nations Foundation - that we won a Webby Award for last year - still resonates with thousands of people across the US and worldwide who continue to raise money and awareness for the campaign through spontaneous fundraising events across the country.

Christopher and I just got back from an action packed week in the UK with The Elders, moving their online vision and strategy project forward (see my March blog post for more info on this amazing new global NGO, their vision, how important online is for them, and our role with them). On the weekend Elders co-founder Peter Gabriel offered us to stay at his world famous recording studio, Real World Studios, in Box, UK, which was fantastic.

So it came as quite a fun surprise to be reading the latest Time Magazine on the flight home, and finding out that Peter has been listed as one of the Top 100 most influential people in the world for 2008! Our Elders board chair, the Archishop Desmond Tutu, wrote a great article about Peter and what a wonderful, heartful, and visionary man he is.