Foreign Policy Camp
Simon Fraser University x Canada’s World
Vancouver, Canada
2009

I curated Foreign Policy Camp with Shauna Sylvester and Sarah Van Borek of Canada’s World as a “hybrid unconference” for public policy rooted in experimentation with new technologies that blended ‘live’ and ‘virtual’ components - a concept so new at the time that we had to provide a digital FAQ pack to participants. As the first hybrid conference of its kind in Canada, policymakers were invited to a series of participatory interventions that integrated a variety of platforms, from customised new media interfaces, multimedia labs and chat room sessions run by local civil society groups, to Twitter strolls, cross-city livestreams, flash mobs and live-recorded webcasts. We were joined by over 300 policymakers, civil servants and students, and thousands of collaborators who participated live on the web from other cities across Canada. The process of organising the camp was featured in a documentary in 2010.

Photos: RJ Aquino, Sarah Van Borek, Canada’s World.