Hello from Toronto,

There are a number of global social tech and community engagement awareness days throughout the year, so I thought I'd help shine a brighter light on the awesome social tech community. Based on the success of the Toronto screenings I organized, I thought it would be fun for social tech and social change makers to self-organize screenings of Us Now around the world to inspire new opportunities for collaboration across government, education, technology and volunteer communities.

Here are the cities that have hosted Us Now screenings:

Portland screening at OneWebDay PDX

San Francisco flagship screening at TechSoup Global                                                        

Tokyo screening with Netsquared Tokyo  

Toronto screening at OneWebDay Toronto                                                                                                    

Vancouver screening at VanChangeCamp

Screenings being planned or screenings looking for help with co-organizing:

Argentina, Arkansas, Chicago, Columbia, DC, Latvia, New York, Ohio, Paris,   South Korea,  

Samples from my Toronto screenings: This cross-sector screening model has been well received, with over 300 people attending each screening:

• The video TVOntario, the Canadian version of PBS filmed and aired for us for the first screening.
• Here are the event details from the second Toronto screening with Toronto Mayor David Miller, Don Tapscott, and social innovation centers.
• The podcast from the second screening.
• And photos from the first and second screenings.

 About the Film:

Us Now is a UK documentary film project that discusses how Web 2.0 inspires people to participate in their communities in new ways. The film's strength is its appeal to a broad audience; it speaks well to non-techies and boomers. It's a great conversation starter for people to take back and discuss Web 2.0 opportunities in their communities. Film length: 59 minutes.

Featured speakers in the film: Don Tapscott, Clay Shirky, Alan Cox, Charles Leadbeater among others.

You can watch the entire film for free and view rushes, bios etc. at http://www.usnowfilm.com

Event Format:

• Don Tapscott, Anthony Willams or Director Ivo Gormley, based on availability, can Skype/video/keynote the event and/or answer audience Q&As.
• Us Now will link to event videos made by organizers and audience members and post it on their blog.
• Promo, event and audience content with be shared via Us Now, Don Tapscott and Netsquared sites.

Number of potential host cities around the world

• Netsquared 67 cities
• One Web Day 30 cities
• Open Everything 16 cities

Screening Schedule:

• Individual screening dates are totally flexible and decided by the organizers. But, it would be fun to have a group of them around the same time or at the exact same time for organizers and audience members to connect across cities and capture this online and on film.

Audience:

The ideal audience includes a cross-section of community members (students, politicians, techies, non-profits, funders etc.) to inspire participation and cross-community collaboration. Ideally (but optional), you could invite community-friendly organizations to host display tables at the screening to directly connect attendees to local meetups, organizations and conferences to facilitate more learning and participation.

To Do List & Costs:

• If you wish, organizers can charge a pay what you can fee for the screening to help raise funds for your group/meetup. Since the film is on a Creative Commons license, the Us Now producers, Banyak Films have agreed to receive 20% from the fees collected in lieu of negotiating film distribution rights since I have no funds to cover this. You can PayPal the fees to hugh@banyak.co.uk and mark as 'US Now Services'. Us Now is free for the public to view online, so this is a way to help the producers cover their costs.
• Us Now is available for free online viewing or organizers can purchase the DVD online for about US$20.
• Theatre space: approach social innovation centres/universities to donate free space=$0
• Keynote: Don Tapscott or Anthony Williams to Skype/video/keynote and/or answer audience Q&As. Celina to arrange with Don. Cost=$0.
• Catering: In Toronto, we asked a green caterer to sell drinks and snacks, so catering cost=$0.
• Event promo: Used Eventbrite, Eventful, Twitter, Facebook and bloggers to plan and promote the event, cost=$0.
• The Us Now Blog, Don Tapscott, and Meetup sites will also post the event screening on their blogs=$0

Let me know if you have any questions, and how I can help plan your screening -  

Celina

celina.agaton@gmail.com

Twitter@celinaagaton

Netsquared Profile: http://bit.ly/OexOZ