David Wilcox

David Wilcox specialises in the development of innovative models for engagement andcollaboration, and the communication systems to support them. He has 30 yearsexperience in the development and support of cross-sector partnerships, and community- based initiatives to deliver regeneration projects. This includes pioneering work oncommunity development trusts and enterprise centres, establishing national support programmes, and more recently the use of social media for knowledge-sharing andcollaboration.In 1996 David helped develop UK Communities Online, a pioneering network for earlyinitiatives to promote local online networks, centres and projects for digital inclusion.Funders and sponsors included the Department for Trade and Industry, BT, IBM andMarconi.He is now practising and promoting the role of the “social reporter” - someone whocombines the best of journalism with facilitation and the use of social media. At eventsthis involves blending the use of video and other digital tools with facilitation processes,to create both a record of the event and enhance the experience of the event for participants. He writes about this athttp://socialreporter.com.David is co-author of a handbook on social technology for social innovation, producedfor NESTA - the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts - and due for publication in May 2009. Other recent projects involve social reporting for the InnovationExchange and the London Chain Reaction event in November 2008, and for a EuropeanCommunity of Practice on social innovation.David spent the first 12 years of his working life as a journalist, mainly with the LondonEvening Standard, writing on housing, planning, transport and property. During the1980s and 1990s David worked as a regeneration consultant, and helped set up some 20local partnership organisations in England and Scotland, and establish national support programmes for community-based regeneration, including working with the Groundwork Trust network.In the early 1990s David concentrated on distilling models of good practice for nonprofitorganisations, and writing publications including the Guide to Effective Participation andthe Guide to Development Trusts and Partnerships.He and Drew Mackie have developed games, simulations and other innovative workshopmethods to facilitate partnership working, and to help people understand the potential of new technologies. David and colleagues have used these games in Australia, NewZealand, the US, Spain and Russia.