Key event links: Apply | Overview | Participants | Agenda | Sessions | Speakers | Curators | | Facilitator
The 2025 Campaigning Forum in Oxford 🔗 brings together a timely range of experienced participants to explore and share what we need to learn in this year and beyond.
Not your conference-as-usual
Designed around participants
Most events are speaker-focused and organiser chosen sessions. For the Campaigning Forum this model is flipped: participants propose and run the session at the event. Some speakers are still invited to provide “food for thought” and inspiration, but they too participate and learn with everyone else. The result is not only two days of intense learning, but entering a community of learners that evolves with your career and life.
So it is important to know who the other participants are in advance.
You shape the agenda
At the Campaigning Forum, participants’ session proposals are scheduled to make an agenda. Each chooses which to join and share expertise at. The simple but powerful model accelerates learning and builds your learning network. It is key to the event’s success.
Do you know what topics you wish to discuss?
Share your expertise by contributing
Run a workshop, present, 7 minutes or 45 minutes. Participants are the experts and we learn from each other. By hosting a workshop or presentation, you learn because you get feedback from peers. Plus you develop you leadership skills.
What can you share? It can be a campaign your are working on or planning, a failure (or success), a challenge to the sector, etc.
Speakers focus on timely sector issues
Speakers are invited to contribute on specific sector issues. We are collecting input on who these should be now.
In 2024 these were:
- Preparing for a likely change in the UK government
- How to integrate local organising with digital mobilisation, plus learning from inclusion, digital transformation and countering fake news.
These are key challenges facing the sector in 2025 and speakers will both challenge you and show what is possible because they’re doing it.
Curators ensure topic continuity
In 2025, curators will invited to help ensure three key topics run through speakers and discussions (a stream/track). Each is already and expert in their area.
The three focuses in 2024 were
- Inclusion and diversity in campaigns
- Countering disinformation
- Digital transformation
Coaching is available
Limited spaces for provate, confidential guidance is available at the 2024 event. You choose your needs. Topics often range from:
- professional: work, goals, resiliance
- personal life: confidence, trauma, relationships, kids, relatives
In 2025, 20-minute coaching session by Anna (trained coach and psychotherapist) are available on 8th Apr. before 18:00 and all day on 9th and 10th April.
Key event links: Apply | Overview | Participants | Agenda | Sessions | Speakers | Curators | | Facilitator
2025 speaker 1 to be confirmed
2024:
Effective campaigning through a change in government
Antonia Bance, Head of Campaigns, Communications and Digital Trades Union Congress (TUC)
2024 will be an election year in the UK – and the polls suggest that there may be a change in government. The UK changes government rarely – as the last change was 14 years ago, many campaigners will never have worked through a transition.
Drawing on her experience working for the TUC, Oxfam, Shelter, and working through the 2010 election in the criminal justice sector, Antonia will set out what campaigners need to think about as they prepare for all eventualities after the election. How did the style of government change in 2010 compared to what came before? How might things change under a Labour government, both in what their priorities are and how they might go about achieving them? What should campaigners be doing now to hit the ground running with new ministers – and to make sure their campaigns, their organisations and their staff teams are as effective as possible?
2025 speaker 2 to be confirmed
2024 was: Why community power matters, regardless of the political weather
Benali Hamdache is Head of Campaigns and Organising at Save the Children
As the General Election looms larger more and more charities will be preparing for a change of government. There will be a strong temptation to return to old tactics. Insider influencing. Personal relationships. Policy launches in the Westminster bubble. I plan to talk about why we shouldn’t be downing tools that work. That investment in people power should never be out of fashion. That regardless the next government will face huge challenges and very few causes will not face at least some hurdles. Innovative campaigning and movement building will be key to getting your interventions over the line.
Benali has worked in campaigns for a decade, across a range of political and charitable causes. He worked on the official Remain campaign and the Green Party’s campaign for Mayor of London and the London Assembly – the most successful in the party’s history. He’s an advocate for community organising and building power locally – particularly as an elected Councillor in Islington.
2025 stream 1 to be confirmed
2024 stream 1 was: Digital transformation for nonprofits: What it is, what are the benefits and how can they be understood better by our sector
Brani Milosevic (LinkedIn) is an Independent Digital Strategist and Consultant with over 20 years experience in the UK charity sector.
In this presentation Brani will present the work she’s been doing alongside a number of fellow digital strategists with decades of experience in the non-profit sector.
Drawing on experiences of working in organisations and as consultants, the group looked at the issues with digital transformation in the sector. We started with a systems analysis to find the root causes and then used the design thinking approach to find levers which could help get the sector unstuck from its current position.
In the session we’ll be able to show you some prototype solutions, related to those levers and will ask for your feedback in a structured way. We may even ask you to do some prototype design yourselves!
Who is this session for:
- Anyone who has tried to introduce some kind of digital change in their team or their organisation.
- If you’re curious about the human centred systems thinking approach we’re using, you may want to listen in and dip your toe in the co-design process afterwards…
2025 stream 2 to be confirmed
2024 stream 2 was:
Allyship for the long term for marginalised communities
Hannah Àjàlá is an international journalist and presenter
Allyship really works – go straight to the people at the top. I will break down the importance of allyship in marginalised communities with examples of how this helps to drive diverse-led initiatives more forward.
Hannah began working at the BBC in radio, and then worked her way up throughout the organisation working in digital news, Current Affairs, BBC 100 Women, BBC World, The World Service, BBC Africa, and more.
She founded We Are Black Journos (WABJ) in 2018, after her years of experiences working at the BBC and seeing a lack of societal representation in the newsroom. WABJ is a way to highlight and celebrate the brilliant work of Black journalists in the UK, who make up 1% of the population.
LinkedIn profile | Website | We Are Black Journos | X / Twitter | Instagram.
2025 stream 3 to be confirmed
2024 stream 3 was:
Facing down disinformation
Aleksandra Meshkova works at Greenpeace Bulgaria where she counters disinformation on climate change
How a reformist tech entrepreneur, Vassil Terziev, narrowly won the mayoral elections in Sofia, Bulgaria in a knife-edge run-off against his pro-Russian rival, Vanya Grigorova.
Aleksandra Meshkova previously worked in the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance where she honed her crisis management skills. She is now half of the two-person Communications team at Greenpeace Bulgaria where she counters disinformation on climate change.
2025 stream 4 to be confirmed
2024 stream 4 was:
Amplifying Authentic Voices: Supporting inclusive storytelling
Geena Patel. Campaign Manager at Media Diversity Institute
An interactive anecdotal chat with the idea that a campaign becomes a place for people to share and learn from each other rather than a talk. I will have a few personal stories to illustrate my talk and aim to get people engaged and talking together in ways that we can better work together.
Geena is a storyteller passionate about fighting for the rights of marginalized communities. Geena specializes in communications, events, and creative projects that create space for more voices to be heard to help the world become an equitable place.
Key event links: Apply | Overview | Participants | Agenda | Sessions | Speakers | Curators | | Facilitator
2024 Stream: Embracing diversity in our campaigns
Being inclusive helps campaigns win as we are more relevant and stronger together
Curator: Geena Patel (LinkedIn). Campaign Manager at Media Diversity Institute. Geena is a storyteller passionate about fighting for the rights of marginalized communities. Geena specializes in communications, events, and creative projects that create space for more voices to be heard to help the world become an equitable place.
2024 Stream: Countering disinformation and authoritarian messaging
Learning to counter disinformation has become a core skill for campaigners
Curator: Brian Fitzgerald (LinkedIn). I’m one half of Mister Fox, the trickster alter ego and Chief Executive Whisker Washer at Dancing Fox, Ltd, a creative agency and storytelling factory. I spent 35 years at Greenpeace driving innovation internally and learning how to work the levers of disruptive communications.
2024 Stream: Digital transformation for nonprofits
What it is, what are the benefits and how can they be understood better by our sector
Curator: Brani Milosevic (LinkedIn) is an Independent Digital Strategist and Consultant with over 20 years experience in the UK charity sector.
She developed digital strategy, campaigning, communications and fundraising skills in some of the UK biggest international development charities – CAFOD and Save the Children UK.
Hello, my name is Anna Raymond, and I am a personal and business coach with a diverse experience including psychology, and various therapeutic approaches.
I am experienced with a range of psychotherapy approaches including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for trauma resolution, body-oriented therapy for holistic healing, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) for mindset and behavior change, and Jungian psychoanalysis for deep self-exploration.
I combine these approaches to support individuals in achieving their personal and professional goals, fostering growth, healing, and self-discovery. I am dedicated to creating a safe and empowering space for my clients to explore their inner world, overcome challenges, and unlock their full potential.
Organised and facilitated by Duane Raymond (FairSay)
Founder of FairSay, the Campaigning Forum event (and community) and active in campaigning and digital for over two decades
Duane organised the first Campaigning Forum event (originally the eCampaigning Forum or ECF) in 2002 in the role of Oxfam’s first digital campaigning manager. He wanted an event that was focused on his needs as a digital campaigning practitioner in this emerging field.
He knew no speaker would know as much as his peers, so he organised anyone he could identify as fellow digital campaigning pioneers to work to join the event. The open space model was the perfect fit and the event has inspired many other events around the world.
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