Tips on using digital technology and tools to support your Canadian federal electoral reform event

There are a number of ways to extend the impact and reach of your Canadian federal electoral reform dialogue using digital technology and tools. Below find some tips and suggestions on how you can use these before, during and after your event.

Before your event

• Search online to find out where members of your community participate on the web in order to help promote and improve the reach of your invitation process. Keep in mind that different communities use a variety of hashtags, online groups, and digital platforms to communicate. Be creative and respectful in how you use these to spread the word about your event. Check out some sample social media invitations you can adapt for your event.
  
• Consider creating and promoting a special hashtag for your event. This enables you to easily build and track the buzz around your event. It also enables easy word of mouth promotion of the event. Good hashtags are short, unique (i.e. not already in use by another community) and memorable.
  
• You may wish to encourage participants to share questions, thoughts, ideas, etc. online ahead of the event for inclusion in your dialogue (e.g. by email, social media). This can be a great way for those who cannot attend the actual event to be able to participate.

During your event

• Encourage participants to share their thoughts during your event on social media. If you created a special hashtag for your event, be sure to mention it during the event and consider including it on any materials that are shared (e.g. posters in the room, printed agenda). If possible, you may wish to have a dedicated person at your event be the designated social media person who shares live updates online for those not at the event. You may also wish to encourage participation from those online via social media, such as asking your dialogue questions on Twitter and sharing any answers received live at the event and/or in your notes from the event.
  
• You may wish to consider live streaming your event over the Internet for those who cannot attend in person. Often, all it takes to successfully stream an event is a device with a camera (such as a smartphone or tablet computer), Internet connection and an online streaming service such as Facebook Live, Periscope, YouTube On Air, etc. If your budget allows, you may wish to consider hiring a professional team to help you live stream and/or record your event for sharing afterwards.
  
• Think about how you might encourage participants to continue the dialogue beyond your event. You may wish to direct participants to an online group, hashtag, etc. so they can continue connecting and discussing with each other once the even itself is over.

After your event

• Consider creating a social media summary of your event featuring some of the posts, photos, etc. from the day and publishing it online for others to see. This can be a helpful recap for those who could not attend the event as well as providing a digital record of your event for posterity.
  
• If you took photos and/or videos of your event, think about how you might share them online along with the results of your dialogue. There are several services, many of which are free, that enable you to quickly post a collection of media, text, etc. such as Medium and Storify that can be easily found and shared by others.
  
• Encourage participants to join the national dialogue on Canadian federal electoral reform online.