Keynote: Alec Ross, Office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, followed by Panel: Team Obama Talks Digital Vision: Strategies and Tools for 2012 and Beyond
Alec Ross serves as Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, where he is tasked with maximizing the potential of technology and innovation in service of America’s diplomatic goals and stewarding Secretary of State Clinton’s 21st Century Statecraft agenda. In this role, Alec helps ensure America’s leadership and advances the State Department’s interests on a range of issues from Internet Freedom to disaster response to responding to regional conflicts.
Previously, Alec served as the Convener for Obama for America’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications Policy Committee and served on the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team.
In 2000, he and three colleagues co-founded the nonprofit organization One Economy and grew it from modest origins in a basement into the world’s largest digital divide organization, with programs on four continents.
He was named the 2010 Middle East/North Africa Technology Person of the Year, cited by the Huffington Post as one of “10 Game Changers in Politics,” named a “game changer” as one of Politico’s “50 Politicos to watch” in 2010, and named one of 40 under 40 leaders in international development. In 2011, he was named one of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy Magazine.
Alec has served as a guest lecturer at numerous institutions including the United Nations, Harvard Law School, Stanford Business School, the London School of Economics, and a number of parliamentary bodies. His writing has appeared in publications including the SAIS Review of International Affairs, the NATO Review and the Hague Journal of Diplomacy.
Alec started his career as a sixth grade teacher through Teach for America in inner-city Baltimore where he lives with his wife and their three young children.
About the panel:
In 2008, the Obama campaign’s online and social media teams set a new high watermark for digital strategy and execution in politics, while also developing concepts and tools that influenced countless organizations, from non-profits looking to fundraise to companies seeking to better connect with customers.
The same architects of the groundbreaking digital effort in 2008 have returned for 2012, but the game has changed. While priorities like financing, message, and mobilization remain the same, shifts in technology and how it’s utilized are necessitating shifts in strategy and tactics that have implications for organizations of all shapes and sizes in 2012 and beyond.
