After spending a few days in Vancouver and Richmond, BC, I traveled to Saskatoon to discuss the role of digital tools in election readiness with the Saskatchewan Party. My presentation also focused on the research I have been doing about the future of politics and technology.

The All Encompassing Power of Tech

While I think that tracking the use of technology during elections is interesting, my real fascination is in watching how these tools are changing government on a broader scale. We are just starting to see the impact of digital tools on everything from international relations to legislative agendas. I spoke about some of the emerging security threats such as cyber-terrorism including the most recent hacking of the Voice of America website by Iranian hackers.

It was important for me to illustrate how all-encompassing the impact of technology is going to be on the way we live. There was a bit of resistance to the idea of that these tools could be useful to election readiness, but as always I stressed the importance of strategy. It’s not about using tools, it’s about using the RIGHT tools in the RIGHT way.

“Don’t be that guy.”

One of my favorite parts of being a speaker is having the chance to open someone’s mind to the possibility of a killer digital strategy. In my pre-talk research I noticed that while Premier Wall had 700 people following him, he wasn’t following anyone back. Twitter is a tool for dialogue not broadcast, I explained, and it’s important for people to feel like you’re listening as well as speaking. Especially for a politician. I then compared not following anyone on Twitter to going to a cocktail party where you yelled loudly over everyone.

Here are the results of that conversation via twitter. It started with a CBC reporter who was at the convention tweeted:

A few days later….

Next stop: Toronto! I’m speaking to the good folks at Microsoft about technology and business.