Workshop E: Digital Campaigning post-Obama
Chair: Andy Williamson, Hansard Society
Mark Pack, Associate Director Digital, Mandate Communication and Former Head of Innovations, Liberal Democrats
Samuel Coates, Head, MyConservatives.com
Speaker from Labour Party tbc

With just a few months to go before an expected 6 May General election, and one that has to be held by June, this session looks at how the three main parties and others are likely to use the internet, social networking, texting and other digital tools as part of their campaign efforts.

Most observers agree that Obama's extraordinarily successful online campaign, raising huge sums of money and harnessing the power of millions of supporters to create a decentralised, ever more powerful grassroots campaign machine, has set the new digital benchmark for politicians worldwide. But with different campaign finance laws in the UK; and different traditions of grassroots political engagement - not to mention different candidates - how far will the Obama experience translate to UK 2010?

Our panel of leading practitioners from the three main parties will explore these and other key quesitons that will determine the future of political campaigning both centrally and locally in the years to come.