In summary, the team helped a bunch of home builders build a broad-based coalition to advocate for federal funding for home-buyers as part of the economic recovery package. The novelty? Much of the coalition building and advocating made use of those digital tools we’ve been banging on about over here for some time. The results? Everywhere you go in the US you can’t move for talk of the federal tax credit for home-buyers.

You can read the  Fix Housing First Case Study here. And below is Pat speaking about the programme late last year at the European Public Affairs Day here in Brussels.

A further article from the UK’s Communicate Magazine talking about the campaign with a wider view of what we do here in Europe, can be found here.

James

Here is the contribution of Alexander Alvaro MEP in two parts. The Q&A session of the panel discussion will be uploaded in coming days.

James

Alas, all that clicking was in vain as the organisers only opened registration today…Should you have been frustrated by our last post you can now however register online at here.

James

We shall be hosting one of the workshop sessions, which will be structured in the form of a panel discussion complete with Q&A. Our panel is entitled “To Twitter or not to Twitter: the use of digital tools in public affairs” and will run in the second morning slot from approximately 11.30 until lunch. Appearing on our panel will be:

• Alexander Alvaro MEP talking about the use of the internet by Members of the European Parliament in and after the election campaign earlier this year.
• Pat Cleary our SVP of digital public affairs from our Washington DC office talking about the use of twitter in advocacy campaigns on the basis of a recent piece of work he did for the Fix Housing First coalition.
• Mark Redgrove. Mark heads up communication at manufacturing industry association Orgalime. He shall speak about how his organisation is using the internet to support advocacy in a Brussels based context

Registrations are not yet open, but should be soon here. We hope you can join us.

James

Our DC based friend Pat Cleary is a believer in it. With giants like GM falling to their knees on both sides of the Atlantic and export economies in Asia still feeling the after effects of the bout of cold turkey in US consumption he’s picked a great time to seek to start a global online community to discuss the issues facing manufacturing the world over.

ManufacturingCrunch endeavors to be the first-of-its-kinds global online manufacturing community, a place where manufacturers — and those who care about manufacturing — can come to debate, discuss or share information on issues of mutual interest. Interested parties can find out more at www.MfgCrunch.com. The platform already has representation from both sides of the Atlantic. On the site there is a Google news feed on manufacturing, a Twitter feed and two daily news feeds — one from the US and one from the EU — on manufacturing. You can also follow Manfacturing Crunch on Twitter (www.twitter.com/MfgCrunch)

James

James

National Journal Twitter Story

In between talking to us and our friends about digital and of course the US elections (Pat is part of the vast rightwing conspiracy), Pat of course continued his day job. The time difference ensuring his day went on and on…a bit like the return from Italy some of us endured at the beginning of the week (it was all going well until Belgium).

In any case, we thought you may appreciate seeing the fruits of his hard labour (and that of our DC digital team). It features two of the things that have been keeping many of us in the Brussels office out of the sunshine this week; climate change and a trade association… Enjoy.

www.trucksdeliver.org

Safe journey home Pat.

After trailing this in several recent posts, it’s our pleasure to announce the “Beltway Blogfather” is here in Brussels at the beginning of May. As we’ve been harping on about the use of digital by Brussels based trade associations, Pat Cleary (pictured), our SVP Digital Public Affairs in D.C., will be appearing for one lunchtime only at our FH offices on 5th May to share his experiences.

Anyone who works for a Brussels trade association is welcome to attend (and to do so for free). Further information about the event and how to register can be found here.

Another event that is bigger, brasher and with canapes/champagne is in the pipeline for June to present some (hopefully) interesting research that FH has been subjecting helpful consumer/citizens to on how the internet changes the way they take decisions on political issues and candidates. Details in due course. All interested parties will be welcome.

Some of the insights on offer in the digital panel can be caught on the blog of panellist David All, TechRepublican. It was interesting to note that the panelists sometimes find inspiration in the activities of European politicians online, such as Sarkozy, and face the same challenges in integrating digital into US politics as we find in intergrating digital into public affairs in Brussels. It seems that even in the US, convincing folk that digital can complement, enhance and sometimes be more effective than traditional offline activities can still be a challenge.

Chairing the blogger panel was FH DC’s Pat Cleary, SVP for digital public affairs or the “Beltway Blogfather” as he is apparently known. Meeting Pat you can’t help but be bowled over. He has experience and enthusiasm in equal bucket loads. Pat is the man behind bizcentral.org, a blogging platform launched recently in D.C to some acclaim (Politico, ABC) for trade associations to express their views online.

Currently eleven associations are signed up (for free) with the only rule that the associations must post at least once a week. Pat is honest enough to admit that for some of those blogging the whole experience is like taking the first tentative step on the digital ladder. The trick, he feels, is to not get lost in wikis, blogs and social media but to concentrate on how these tools can drive the organisation’s message towards an organisation’s key audiences in an effective and efficient manner.

In any case, should you be taking those tentative steps, who else would you want at the bottom holding the ladder steady but Pat? He’s the man who in a previous life created a public policy blog for the (US) National Association of Manufacturers that hit a million readers after two years…it continues to this day (just without Pat).

Thankfully at the end of our meetings the FH Brussels team didn’t walk away from the Mayflower Hotel with nothing more than a room number plaque with the digits 871. We’ve convinced Pat to come over to Brussels in early May to share some of his experiences. Two events are in the pipeline; one aimed at Brussels based trade associations who may wish to learn from Pat’s experiences with the NAM and a second where Pat will appear on a panel with Brussels based decision-makers to reflect upon recently completed FH/Harris Interactive research into the way European citizens are using the internet to inform their political decisions. More information about the two (free to attend) events will follow here and on our FH Brussels corporate website in next couple of weeks.