PLENARY

Welcome to Country + Welcome to FWD+Organise 2021

Gadigal Elder
Sarah Rogan (Australian Progress)

A Gadigal elder will officially open FWD+Organise 2021 with a Welcome to Country, followed by a welcome address from the FWD+Organise emcee.

WORKSHOP

Growing Our Movement through Momentum

Cat Nadel (Tomorrow Movement)

“We are the first organisation in Australia to adopt the Momentum organising model, and are excited to share how it’s helped us grow a movement, even during lockdowns.” Join Cat Nadel and Des Cai from Tomorrow Movement for this interactive workshop on the Momentum model and how to practically apply it. The Momentum organising model is behind powerful US movements like the Sunrise Movement, If Not Now and the campaign to impeach Trump, and can help you scale your movement, too.

MASTERCLASS

Dollar Handles to Donation Asks: Best Practice Digital Fundraising in 2021

Tom Maitland (Raisely)

What helps supporters and donors engage with my campaigns? What will boost my conversion rates? And what are the benchmarks to measure my next campaign by? Raisely will share answers to these questions and more, informed by insights from over $200M worth of anonymised fundraising data and thousands of campaigns. Their workshop – designed specifically for FWD+Organise participants - will also offer practical tips from recent case studies in digital fundraising.

PRESENTATION

Prisms of the People

Liz McKenna (P3 Labs)

Join Liz McKenna, co-author of Prisms of the People: Power and Organizing in 21st Century America, for a discussion about how grassroots organisations translate the engagement of their people into political power, acting like prisms refracting white light into rainbows. Liz will share insights from the latest research using data from six movement organisations, with lessons on organisational design choices that shape people and their leaders, as well as strategies to help you understand how grassroots groups achieve their goals.

WORKSHOP

ELECTION: Who's Who in the Zoo

Ben Raue (The Tally Room) and others to be announced

Are you developing your election strategy and want to know where other organisations are playing? This session will kick off with a briefing from the Tally Room’s Ben Raue, who’ll share his prediction on which seats are likely to fall and electorates to watch. This will be followed by four organisations sharing their strategies for the election - including their goals and target audiences, as well as the tactics and messaging they’re using.

CASE STUDY

Rapid Response Media: Western Sydney Lockdown

Aliya Ahmad (Economic Media Centre
Neha Madhok (Democracy in Colour)

Media campaigns can shape or shift mainstream narratives and change policies. Neha (Democracy in Colour) and Aliya (Economic Media Centre) will discuss the rapid response media campaign they ran that addressed the racist and heavy-handed response of over policing communities of colour and working class communities in south west Sydney at the start of the Delta outbreak. The rapid response media campaign combined with digital tactics shifted the narrative within hours, and has continued to shape the discourse. They will share insights on how to run a rapid response media campaign and sustain momentum beyond the immediate media moment.

WORKSHOP

India and Australia - A Workshop on Climate Solidarity

Ruchira Talukdar (Climate Justice Research Centre / UTS)
Jess Harwood (The Sunrise Project)

The 10-year movement against Adani in Australia has attempted to build solidarity with struggles in India against Adani’s coal operations. While the movement here consists of urban, middle class activists and volunteers, the Indian movements are largely subsistence-based 'peasant' and Adivasi (Indigenous) peoples whose struggles for land and social justice are historic and ongoing. How can the Australian movement fully understand and effectively centre the visions and needs for climate justice of these Indian groups in its narrative and campaigns? With visual illustrations, this workshop shares a toolkit for effective intersectional solidarity from global elites towards global subalterns.

WORKSHOP

Showing Power Online

Ruby Marshall (Victorian Trades Hall Council)
Moira Cully (Victorian Trades Hall Council)
Rhiannon Williams-Demmon (GetUp) and others to be announced

It’s been almost two years of organising in a pandemic -- so, what have we learned? Hear from innovative digital campaigns who’ve won pay rises, safer working conditions, access to PPE, paid pandemic leave and more. What are the solid, meaningful and ongoing tactics for volunteers (covid-safe) that have worked? What are the alternatives to rallies and door knocks, and what do they look like online? We’ll cover these questions and more so you walk away with the confidence to design and deliver a digital election strategy that centres relationships and organising.

WORKSHOP

ELECTION: Audience Mapping

Speakers to be announced

What are the top issues that voters care about this election? Which electorates have high numbers of insecure workers and people living below the poverty line? Who cares about climate change most? Hear the answers to these questions and more, in a session designed for campaigners and organisers working out which audiences to target ahead of the election. If you have polling or audience data you’re happy to share, please bring it along and there’ll be time to collate research insights at the end of the workshop.

MASTERCLASS

Digital Transformation In Progressive Organisations

Sara Smylie (United Workers Union) and more to be announced

How do we convince our organisations to invest in tech and digital? How do we get new ideas up and running, and build a culture of innovation? Join Sara Smylie from United Workers Union to hear about their innovation portfolio, and the wins, failures and lessons they have to share for other organisations trying to do the same.

PLENARY

We Stand With Palestine

Jeanine Hourani (Road to Refuge)
Sara Saleh (Artist and refugee advocate)
Randa Abdel-Fatah (Advocate and adademic)
Salem Barahmeh (PIPD/Rabet)

This special evening panel will dive into the fight for Palestinian human rights, the illegal military occupation of the land and solidarity between anti-colonial movements. Jeanine, Randa and Sara will explore the continuing battle against the systemic oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli government - including lessons and wins from years of struggle and how they changed the national conversation on Palestine. For an on-the-ground perspective, they’ll be joined by Salem Barahmeh from Sheikh Jarrah, to tell the story of the vibrant grassroots campaign to save the neighbourhood.

PLENARY

Cellphones for collective action: a plenary conversation

Koketso Moeti (amandla.mobi)

amandla.mobi mobilised a community of 900,000+ people to turn every cellphone in Mzansi (South Africa) into a democracy-building tool to ensure those most affected by injustice, particularly low income Black women, can take collective action. Koketso will share amandla.mobi’s work drawing on legacies of resistance, organising at the intersections of racial and economic justice, and building eco systems to create a shared vision for Black women to thrive. You’ll take away lessons on reaching multilingual audiences, connecting people, coordinating at scale and using tech as a tool to create change.

PLENARY

A Conversation with Tareq Alani from Push Black

Tareq Alani (Push Black)

PushBlack is the largest non profit media organisation in the US, dedicated to raising up Black voices. They use the power of narrative, especially Black history and news, to educate and activate more than nine million Black Americans to build their personal power and create lasting economic and political change. Tareq will share insights on how creating media relationships with Black Americans using Facebook Messenger drives people to take action, including enrolling to vote, and how PushBlack is using tech to create change.

PLENARY

Deep canvassing to shift hearts, minds and votes

Caitlin Homrich-Knieling (We The People Michigan)

We know that deep canvass conversations can shift hearts and minds and votes around divisive issues. Hear about the success of a deep canvassing approach to undocumented migrants and Medicare for All in Michigan from Caitlin Homrich-Knieling, Deep Canvass Coordinator.

WORKSHOP

ELECTION: Coordinating on Organising in Seats

Anita Tang (Australian Progress)

Are you organising in lower house seats in the lead up to the election? Meet others organising in those same seats in this practical session to exchange notes on who your audiences are, understand geographical focus areas, share your key dates and the main tactics you’ll be using, and to understand if there are any overlapping goals. This session will be facilitated by Anita Tang and will be very participatory -- the more you bring to share, the more everyone will get out of it.

WORKSHOP

How to TikTok

Georgia Kriz (Australian Council of Trade Unions)

Learn how to use everyone’s favourite stupid clock app in this TikTok 101 session. TikTok is hugely popular with young users and capable of delivering incredibly targeted content because of the nature of its algorithm. It’s also a site of misinformation and radicalisation - making it even more important to offer progressive stories and spaces on the app. Georgia Kriz from ACTU will walk you through the platform, and offer advice on how to master the algorithm, find the right voices for content, and move users from scrolling through their For You page to taking action. You’ll also learn how ACTU worked with existing TikTok creators to create content that generated over 1.3 million likes, and over 300 completed applications from TikTok users to join their union.

WORKSHOP

Flipping the Formula: Shifting Power in the Industry of Politics

Joy Cushman (Democracy in Power Innovation Fund)
Andrea Marta (Faith in Action)

Understanding power is key in community organising, and organisers and campaigners are familiar with mapping decision makers and analysing power around key decision makers. But what about the power dynamics within our own industry of politics, campaigning and social change? Join this session for an analysis of power in our own industry and how to ‘flip the formula' to build genuine, multiracial power.

WORKSHOP

Deep canvassing: frameworks and tools workshop

Caitlin Homrich-Knieling (We The People Michigan)

As with any organising practice, there are frameworks and tools for planning and conducting deep canvassing initiatives. Come to learn from Caitlin Homrich-Knieling about when to use deep canvassing, the key components of deep canvassing, key steps in preparing for a deep canvass, and a chance to practice some deep canvass skills.

CASE STUDY

Global Solidarity: Save Sheikh Jarrah

Noura Mansour (Australia Palestine Advocacy Network) and more to be announced

The workshop will follow the Wednesday evening panel, with a focus on community organising - covering the tips, lessons, learnings, wins and fails from mobilising thousands of people across the country to Save Sheikh Jarrah. Noura and others will detail how they organised communities to take action in support of Sheikh Jarrah earlier this year, the ongoing fight for Palestinan human rights and how we can meaningfully stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

MASTERCLASS

Winning the Content Wars

Antonio Greer (GSCC)

In the age of Content (capital letter necessary), how do we make sure our campaigns are heard online? Antonio Greer from GSCC will share new digital campaigning tactics for content generation and distribution, utilising SEO, SEM and digital advertising to their fullest potential. Move beyond writing and launching online petitions and new ways to ensure your content reaches the people and places necessary to shift the nature of the conversation on our issues.