An observation from attending Edmonton networking events has been slowly festering in me for a while and it peaked after participating in Pecha Kucha Night 7 (PKN7) last Thursday.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the social aspect of these events such as tweetups and various camps. However, does any concrete action or change happen in our community as a result? There has been fundraisers, which many have supported, myself included.
I was asked tonight what is my passion and why am I involved in it by @KenChapman46. When I said community engagement, he responded by saying, “Don’t you think community engagement is a form of activism?”
I have never defined myself as an activist. But let me start by explaining why I love to connect with audiences or communities. When I worked as a journalist, I loved to write stories that would move people into acting or reacting around an issue. I use communication, even now as a volunteer and a full-time public relations practictioner, (if I may say so a bit politely) to get people off their butts and get involved.
Involvement means perhaps attending events that I may promote or swaying them to volunteer in the community league.
I’m not the type to be waving placards or jumping in with protesters to push an issue forward. If I am passionate about a cause or an issue, I will start by working on the communication strategies around it.
Ken’s comment also had me look up the definitions of an advocate and an activist. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary describes an advocate as “someone who recommends or supports by arguement a cause or a policy. Activism is a “vigourous action to support a cause”.
After looking at these definitions, I would say that how I am involved with community engagement is as an advocate. Ken would point out and say that I’m on my way to becoming an activist.
However, my passion still lies with overcoming the challenge of community engagement and pushing this engagement forward through communication. Define me as an advocate but I don’t think I’ll ever be an activist.
Art has a dual purpose in life. It’s meant to be admired, to be displayed and to be bought and sold. But art’s most important role is to gather people together.
I was fortunate to be part of a blogger’s tour of the new Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) yesterday. The building, which opens to the public on Sunday, is striking with its curves, its texture and its colours. What stayed in my mind is how the AGA will bind Edmontonians together because of art.
Do labels define us or limit who we are? I think both but it shouldn’t necessarily be that way. As a society, a community and as individuals we are constantly evolving.
Consider our province. Alberta is known as a Conservative redneck and oil rich province to Canadians across the country. But if you examine Alberta’s history, it has changed over the last 100 years. Immigrants came to farm and homestead and it was only the discovery of oil in 1947 in Leduc that our province’s focus shifted.
If you asked me a year ago what was a hashtag, a tweet or a retweet, I would have looked at you blankly.
As a member of the CPRS Edmonton chapter, I decided to attend a luncheon in December 2008 that focused on the topic of social media. Walter Schwabe of fusedlogic was the guest speaker. Schwabe said one line that sold me on Twitter – (to paraphrase) if you aren’t on it, you are out of the game.
I’ve always been fascinated about how neighbourhoods and communities develop. When I was a reporter at the Brooks Bulletin, my favourite beat was town council because I could have discussions with municipal planners regarding the concepts for new neighbourhoods.
Last night, I had the opportunity to hear Jim Diers, who works across North America with cities and towns on community engagement.
A bite of food communicates what you believe in. The movie, Food Inc., left me with this thought after watching the film and absorbing how the food industry works in the United States.
Actions come in many forms in communities and if you think about it, a community’s actions are really a tactic of communication.
While listening to Stuart McLean on the Vinyl Cafe today, I was struck by the image of how families used to gather around the breakfast table reading newspapers.
McLean posed the question, “Are we all on the same page?” in his “In Praise of Newspapers” piece. He made a great point when newspapers were king, everyone was reading the same front page and this was a key connection to building a community.
Where do you draw the line to openly tell all to others in your community? When is it a good practice to keep dialogue within closed doors?