21c Managing Director Julia Glidden spoke at the Local Government Information Unit's Social Networking and Youth Participation Event on 26th September. She addressed delegates on the theme of eParticipation in the Era of Web 2.0, discussing the widening gap between young people's use of the web and that of older people and particularly government.

The presentation was very well received, as you can see from this blog about the event: http://carlhaggerty.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/thoughts-on-social-networking-and-youth-participation-event/

In addition, the organisers conducted an anonymous survey of the delegates in which Julia was rated 'Good' or 'Excellent' by 98% of respondents and received the following feedback:

'Julia Glidden - reality of speech, fantastic and so, so true'

'Very impressed by Julia and her enthusiasm'

'Julia Glidden's presentation was excellent and very thought provoking. She should go on tour of all LAs'

It's always nice to know that presentations are well-received and thought provoking!

Susie Ruston of 21c represented the company at the latest PEP-Net meeting in Brussels in September. The meeting was well attended and partners discussed the achievements of the project so far, including the increasing number of PEP-Net members, and the future for the project.

Partners also discussed what the project should do to mark One Web Day, which took place on 22 September. Partners agreed to create a 30 second video clip each explaining what eParticipation means to them and their region. 21c created their video, starring a Civil Servant, citizen and practitioner. All of the PEP-Net contributions to the day can be seen here: http://pep-net.eu/wordpress/?p=165.

21c's work isn't all about helping Government - we also help out small businesses too! In August, Susie Ruston and Alice Chicken from 21c again worked with the AIDC Centre in Halifax on their Business Assist programme. The team visited a hairdressing salon near Doncaster and assessed their needs in terms of Automatic Identification and Data Capture technologies to help improve their stock control and expand their business in future. This culminated in the creation of a Feasibility Report and Tender Document which will enable the company to apply for funding to update their systems.

The Business Assist programme, a Yorkshire Forward intiative run by AIDC, is making huge strides in providing small businesses in Yorkshire with the knowledge and funding to modernise their processes through AIDC technologies to ensure they can compete in a 21st Century environment.

21c recently completed a research and evaluation project with associates Bell Consulting and Services. The project, which explored the feasibility of a Public Sector eProcurement system, was carried out on behalf of Yorkshire Forward.

The partnership between 21c and BCandS went from strength to strength, culminating in extremely positive feedback from the client:

'We were impressed by the range of skills across your team, enabling the work to be carried out in a short time frame but to a high quality standard, and they were a pleasure to work with.' - Yorkshire Forward

Another project completed successfully!!

Julia Glidden, Managing Director of 21c, addressed delegates at 2 sessions of the European Institute of Public Administration's 'Perspectives on eGovernment' Seminar in Maastricht on 8th July.  She discussed both the age gap in relation to participatory technologies and the success factors and barriers for introducing eParticipation. This second discussion was in partnership with Daniel van Lerberghe of the Politech Institute. The presentations were warmly received by the attendees of the event.

21c hit the streets of Swindon in April and May to encourage Swindon voters to go the polls on 1 May, and everyone's favourite pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow was there to help!

The 21c team were hired by Swindon's Election Team to conduct a Voter Engagement campaign in Swindon for this year's Local Elections, testing the effect on turnout of campaigns run in the 2 weeks before the election compared to just on Election Day itself.

Posters were posted and street teams in 'Make a Difference' t-shirts hit the streets of Swindon handing out leaflets and balloons. On the Saturday before Polling Day, they were even joined by Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean! OK, so he was just a look-a-like, but he was pretty convincing and certainly got the kids (and big kids) of Swindon interested in the message. Check out the article below to see for yourself!

http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/display.var.2234098.0.captain_jack_goes_on_the_election_trail.php

Initial results suggest the campaign helped increase turnout in the Parks ward where the campaign was in full swing for 2 weeks before the election and halted a decline in turnout in Abbey Meads which was targetted on Election Day.