Back to the Main Boston Wiki

Civics, Social Media and the Countdown to Election '08

Social Media Club Boston

Thursday, February 7, 2008

6:00pm - 9:00pm

The Institute of Politics

First Floor Conference Room

Harvard University

79 JFK Street

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Driving and MBTA directions are available from the IOP website at http://www.iop.harvard.edu/about_directions.html

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED! WE HAVE MORE THAN 60 PEOPLE SIGNED UP FOR THE EVENT.

ALL PEOPLE ON THE WAITING LIST AS OF 10:30AM ON WEDNESDAY, FEB. 6TH HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE REGISTRATION LIST. NO FURTHER PEOPLE WILL BE ADMITTED.

On February 5th, Massachusetts voters will head to the polls. What roll will social media have played in each voter's decision-making process? What tools and techniques are campaigns looking at to communicate with their constituencies? What's in store for November's election, and future elections?

We're putting together an excellent panel of technology and political experts who will discuss the present and future of the electoral process, and the role that social media will play as we move forward.

Our moderator for the event will be John Della Volpe. John Della Volpe is director of polling at Harvard University's Institute of Politics and founder of SocialSphere Strategies, a Web 2.0 strategy company located in Harvard Square, Cambridge. John's polls, among many other insights, accurately predicted the spikes in youth turnout in 2004, 2006 and 2008 (so far), providing insight into the ways in which digital natives and "Millennials" communicate and form opinions. He is a veteran of four presidential campaigns and dozens of other high-profile campaigns in the U.S. and abroad. He also serves as a member of the University of Massachusetts Civic Initiative Board of Advisors and was recently appointed Eisenhower Fellow for 2008 where he will study on use of social networking tools in Korea and China.

John will be joined by a panel of experts that includes:

• Morra Aarons, Internet communications consultant, former Director of Internet Marketing for the Democratic National Committee and Kerry-Edwards '04; political director of BlogHer.org.
• Joseph Carrabis, founder and chief research officer of NextStage
• Robert Boyle, founder, Glassbooth.org

Morra Aarons-Mele is a blogger and a political and Internet communications consultant. She is the political director of BlogHer.org, the largest site for women bloggers, with over 5.5 million unique visitors a month. She also serves as a frequent contributor to CNN and TechPresident.com. She was formerly the Director of Internet Marketing for both the Democratic National Committee and the Kerry-Edwards '04 campaign. As a graduate student at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, she specializes in women and leadership.

Joseph Carrabis, founder and chief research officer of NextStage Evolution and NextStage Global, companies that specialize in helping clients improve their marketing efforts and understand customer behavior. Carrabis has authored 23 books and over 300 articles in five areas of expertise. Beginning in late 2003, Joseph applied his companies' proprietary analytics technology to the presidential campaign and predicted (well in advance of the pundits) the demise of the Dean campaign--simply by analyzing media coverage. We're sure he'll have his predictions for 2008's outcome, and we'll be asking him how he's taking into account new media.

Robert Boyle is a founder and a director of Glassbooth, an organization created to develop innovative tools to empower the American voter. The first such tool, glassbooth.org launched in November of 2007 and was instantly a critical success, appearing in the New York Times, Wired, the CBS Evening News, and over 1,000 blogs in its first open month. Prior to his work at Glassbooth, Robert worked on a bipartisan project for the Michigan Supreme Court to reform the judicial electoral system in Michigan. He is 24 years old.

REGISTER NOW! Click the "Edit page" button at the top or bottom of this page. Use media as the password. Add a line at the bottom starting with an asterisk and a space. You can also copy the formatting for Todd's name at the beginning if you want to add a link. REGISTRATION IS CLOSED. ALL PEOPLE ON THE WAITING LIST AS OF 10:30AM ON WEDNESDAY, FEB. 6TH HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE REGISTRATION LIST. NO FURTHER PEOPLE WILL BE ADMITTED.

00-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Todd Van Hoosear, Topaz Partners
• Randy Cole (via Facebook)
• Amanda Watlington
• Bonnie Peirce
• Christine DiMartino
• Danielle DiGiovanni
• John Johansen
• Jen Zingsheim
• Bob Sherriff, Sherriff Productions
• Pablo Baqués (via Facebook)

10-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Susan Getgood
• Douglass Turner
• Debra Hart
• Rick Burnes, 9Neighbors
• Mike Spataro, Visible Technologies
• Wendie Larkin, Topaz Partners
• Adam Zand, Topaz Partners
• Kyle F Flaherty (via Facebook)
• Matt Searles (via Facebook)
• Alec M Resnick (via Upcoming)

20-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Matt Kelly
• Maggie Jarmolowski
• Liz Koch
• Jonathan Chavez, SocialSphere Strategies
• Mark Wilson, SocialSphere Strategies
• Melanie Stachowiak, Marketwire
• Sandy Kalik, Topaz Partners
• Beth Brenner, SHIFT Communications
• David Feldman
• Jordan Newman (via Facebook)

30-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Matthew Crucius (via Facebook)
• Michael Willett
• GregPC, Weber Shandwick and Over the River
• Bryan Person, Social Media Breakfast and Bryper.com
• John Cass PR Communications
• Ashley Cheng, Weber Shandwick
• Julia Gaynor, Racepoint Group
• Stephen Russell, Racepoint Group
• Julie Anne Gehring
• Cindy Drucker

40-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Emily Sternfeld, Greenough Communications
• Gretchen Bender, Greenough Communications
• Jamie Bull, Lois Paul & Partners
• Justin Drake, Schwartz Communications
• Meg Temple, InnoCentive
• Fred Tracy, eRPortal Software Group
• Jean Tracy, Food For Thought
• Michael Ratty (via Facebook)
• Zach Braiker (via Facebook)
• Simeon Margolis, Utterz

50-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Anita Harris, Harris Communications Group
• Katie Fryman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
• Brigitte Casemyr, Turfbuilder Marketing, LLC
• Danielle Gilardi, Jack Morton Digital
• Evan McDaniel, Jack Morton Digital
• Faye Pantazopoulos, American Public Television
• Nicolas Boillot, Hart-Boillot LLC
• Bob Olson
• Yianni Garcia- Digital Influence Group
• Lois Slavin, MIT

EVERYONE-ON-THE-WAITING-LIST-HAS-BEEN-ADDED---------------

• Ed Gaskin
• Jen Saragosa, Business Wire
• William Manning, ARCHIBUS, Inc.
• Julie Ginches, BluePRint
• Doug Haslam, Topaz Partners
• Hannah Wells
• Pamela Rosenthal
• Janet Swaysland, Beeline Labs
• Roger Matus, InBoxer, Inc. (Blog: Death By Email)
• Nathan Ciccolo

CUT-OFF---------------------------------------------------------------------

NOT A REAL WAITING LIST, BUT A LIST FOR THOSE THAT ARE STILL INTERESTED BUT AREN'T ON THE LIST ABOVE :-)

• Steve Garfield SteveGarfield.com

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED! WE HAVE MORE THAN 60 PEOPLE SIGNED UP FOR THE EVENT. ALL PEOPLE ON THE WAITING LIST AS OF 10:30AM ON WEDNESDAY, FEB. 6TH HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE REGISTRATION LIST. NO FURTHER PEOPLE WILL BE ADMITTED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST!