I’ve been a member of the Campaigning Forum community for a very long time. I don’t post too often, partly because the community is brimming with smart people who are super quick off the mark with great advice. I just find myself nodding in approval from the sidelines – and partly because I’m shy lol.
Yet I’m in need of recharging my batteries with some face-to-face community vibes and there are a lot of conversations I want to have. So I’m heading to this at the annual Campaigning Forum (ECF) event in Oxford – and I hope to see you there!
Why I like the conference and think we should all go.
I went to my first ECF not long after moving from Glasgow to London to join 38 Degrees as a campaigner, in about 2011. I’d been working in Scottish party politics, and stepping into digital campaigning was a new world.
Online petitions were a fresh, exciting tactic, petition hand-ins got media coverage, and sending emails to decision-makers en masse would frequently catch them off guard.
I went to my first ECF feeling like a novice. I didn’t have a professional network yet. I was surprised and delighted by my first experience of co-creating an agenda for the two days as a whole group.
My a-ha moments at ECF events
I had some major “a-ha” moments at ECF. I remember learning from the founder of SumOfUs (now Ekō) about the power and potential of targeting corporate giants as well as governments.
That realisation led me to a McDonald’s in Whitehall a few years later. I was surrounded by activists and journalists as I handed in a giant All Out petition to McDonald’s director of communications, demanding they speak out as sponsors of Russia’s anti-gay Winter Olympics.
(Fun fact – that campaign didn’t move the corporations but it did lead to the addition of LGBT as a protected characteristic within the Olympic Charter. A win for the team I was leading at the time, and the courageous Russian activists we worked with.)
At my next ECF, I remember the collective realisation that we had to shift from chasing vanity metrics to building and measuring long-term supporter engagement.
As a consultant today, that’s a principle I come back to over and over again, helping organisations get supporters active and keep them active over time.
Evolving relationship with the ECF event and community
My relationship with ECF evolved as the years went by. I became Head of Digital Mobilisation at Greenpeace UK, and I made it a priority to send members of my team
I knew they would return with practical ideas and a sharp sense of where digital campaigning was heading. Seeing them come back energised and connected was super-rewarding.
Why returning now matters
Returning to the conference in 2026 feels like a full-circle moment.
After the last few years we’ve had politically, I need an injection of that community spirit and camaraderie again. And there’s a lot to talk about.
The digital landscape is far noisier than it ever was. Teams are under pressure to deliver more with fewer resources. And the tools we rely on – from social platforms to search – are changing faster than most organisations can keep up with.
I’d like to discuss practical steps for designing strategies that leave teams empowered, not overwhelmed. I want to talk about far-right threats to marginalised and vulnerable groups.
Oh, and yes, I want to talk about how AI is rapidly rewriting much of what we once knew about engaging people digitally, not to mention how we get work done in our organisations. For good, ill, in-between.
Fifteen years ago, I left my first ECF with a sense of community that has never gone away. ECF remains the place where the UK’s digital campaigners and fundraisers gather to solve the problems that matter.
If you’re heading there this year, I’m excited to see you, I already see a few names on the list of folk I want to catch up with.
Feel free to reach out and say hello, whether it’s your first time or seventh.
Scott Argo (he/him)
Helping win campaigns and get supporters active