I was very grateful to have been invited to contribute to the inspiring 2gether08 event last Thursday. I attended with two hats on.

In my current role as secondee to CLG, I’d gone there to check out my hunch that this is the sort of event and network that local and national Government needs to engage with if we are to make progress with the Government’s policy of community empowerment. My hunch was right and at the very, very last minute national Government did get involved with Tom Watson MP using the event to promote the ‘mash-up’ competion – Show Us a Better Way. Hopefully their involvement will be better planned and more strategic next year.

While I was there I also did a mini presentation and led a ‘next steps’ discussion with a group of people behind the Coca-Cola Campaign. More on this later.

At the event, during the coffee break, I got a surprise call from Jennifer Tracey (pictured!) who asked to meet to talk about what had happened since Radio 4′s iPM Programme first featured the campaign in May. You can listen to an edit of the interview below or by going to the feature on the iPM website. Thanks are due again to the whole of the iPM Team who really helped to get this campaign off to a flying start.