Government, Entrepreneurship & Digital Democracy

Our third event, 'Government, Entrepreneurship & Digital Democracy', is back in the big events room on the ground floor of Google Campus. We are co-hosting this one with the London Debating Society so please be quick to sign up as tickets will be sold on multiple sites.

Douglas Carswell MP has agreed to join us as one of our speakers and panellists and we aim to explore some of the issues he highlights in his recent book ‘The End of Politics’ in which he suggests that the digital revolution amounts to a transformation in human affairs on a par with the agrarian and the industrial revolutions, changing the way that human social and economic affairs are arranged and making collectivism without government possible in ways that were previously unimaginable.

Together with questions and debate from the audience, the panel will also discuss what government should and shouldn’t be doing to facilitate and encourage entrepreneurship - a slightly separate subject, but one which nonetheless overlaps with how digital technologies can make government decision making more accountable and support the development of civil society in place of the elite run hierarchical state.

Headliners

Our panel of main speakers include:

Douglas Carswell, Member of Parliament (for Clacton), blogger and author of 'The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy' (October 2012). He found prominence by calling for reform of parliamentary expenses before the 2009 expenses scandal and in recognition of his efforts to bring change to Westminster, in 2009 Spectator readers voted him Parliamentarian of the Year. Andy Williamson, CEO of FutureDigital.Eu and an internationally recognised expert in digital democracy and citizen engagement who is a prolific writer and speaker on such subjects. Andy works with parliaments, government departments, public agencies and local government to transform their engagement strategies to support new digital and social channels. Matthew Elliott, founder of the TaxPayers' Alliance in 2004 and in 2009 the Big Brother Watch campaign for personal and civil liberties. In 2011 he was headhunted to run the successful "NO to AV" referendum campaign, turning 2 to 1 support for electoral reform into a 67.9% to 32.1% defeat for the "Yes" side. Matthew is sought after as an electoral strategist and has worked with political parties in several different countries. Format

We'll follow our 'BBC Question Time' type format, with the main discussion and debate focused on the panellists above, but hopefully also with a high degree of audience participation, subject to moderation. Please message us via meetup beforehand to let us know of any particular questions you'd like to put to the panel.

Some of the areas we'll be looking to investigate are as follows:

Government & Entrepreneurship

Regulations and tax; Infrastructure;Subsidies and incentives; Finance; and Education. Digital Democracy

Digital political processes; Decentralisation and citizen involvement; ‘Wikidemocracy’ and crowdsourcing; The Virtual State; and Transparency. We will start at 6.30pm with some general networking on the ground floor before holding our formal forum between 7 and 8.00/8.15pm, followed by more networking at Campus (we have to be out by 9pm) and then The Fox pub (around the corner on Paul St). From 6.30pm, we'll provide you with beer and tasty Indian food, provided by our friends at the Shoreditch Off Licence.

Payment

To help cover our costs and allow us to pay our bill for everyone’s booze and food, please pay £10 through meetup before the event (preferred) or bring £10 in cash with you on the day to pay at the door.

Filming

If enough of you register in advance and we then get a sponsor, we'll hopefully be able to arrange filming of the event and live stream it on the web. Further details to be announced, but if you run a blog please let us know your email addresses and once the video has been produced we can send you a link to embed on your website.

Sponsorship

We are actively searching for a good sponsor for this event and future ones. If anyone knows of any companies who may be interested in being involved with our group, in whatever way, please send them our way!