Politics and Open Government in the Digital Age: we’re launching UPGRADE Democracy @ iCEE.fest 2018

This year, iCEE.fest brings together social and political communication experts to demonstrate how digital technology can transform society.

Under the concept of UPGRADE Democracy, professionals and political consultants will help you have a better understanding of new transformations in digital political campaigns, talk about electoral campaigns and their implications, debate public policies, deal with issues such as digital diplomacy and the Open Government concept and draw action and civic initiatives to modernize and update democracy.

Key points about UPGRADE Democracy – the full line-up is available here.

An event that came to life at the initiative of Majoritas Academy – a learning organization that brings institutions and politicians around the world closer to citizens and voters.
Addresses digital marketing specialists, governors, policy analysts, journalists and all citizens aspiring to a different democratic society
The topics on the agenda tackle rethinking democracy, the propaganda concept, regaining confidence and the terms and policy of personal data in politics
Another challenge: in the context of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), new terms and policies are to be enforced for data protection.

Speaker from the USA, Mexico, Greece, South Africa, Israel, Romania, and Kosovo have been confirmed for the Democracy UPGRADE Stream/ here‘s the updated list:

Dan Kanninen, political analyst and consultant

Dan has spent more than 15 years in influential positions at all levels of government and politics, playing key roles in policy-making, campaigns, and political management
He has advised presidential candidates, cabinet members, governors, major private sector CEOs, non-profits and coalitions, and foreign heads of state
Dan played a critical role in President Obama’s 2008 election as the State Director in Wisconsin after working in leadership positions in Wisconsin, Ohio and North Carolina during the primaries.
He served the re-elect by overseeing the northeastern United States (a nine state including the critical battlegrounds of New Hampshire and Pennsylvania) from Chicago headquarters before leading the Virginia operation as Senior Advisor, turning that state blue for just the second time since 1964.
Dan is a Partner and CEO of the political and public affairs consulting firm STG

Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Research Director @ DiaNEOsis, a think tank based in Athens, Greece, focusing on the economic and social reconstruction of the country.

He served as a member of the Greek government’s negotiating team with the troika of lenders in 2014
Kyriakos is a graduate of MIT’s Engineering Systems Division, of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and of Athens University of Economics and Business

Eric Schultz, Independent Consultant and former Ambassador of the United States of America to Zambia

Schultz retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2018 and is currently working as an independent consultant
He was a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor
He took the oath of office in October 2014 as the U.S. Ambassador to Zambia, where he served until November 2017.

Martinez Alberto Saracho, founding President of Fundación IDEA, one of Latin America’s first independent public policy think-tanks, as well as a founding partner of C230, the region’s premier public management consulting firm.

He works with public and private sector partners, as well as international and non-profit organizations, in developing, implementing and improving their performance and impact.

George Birnbaum, Independent Political Consultant

He came of age during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Since 2003, Birnbaum has consulted and managed campaigns throughout Europe and the Middle East.

Lucian Despoiu, Founder & CEO @ Majoritas and Managing Partner of Kondiment

Lucian is a serial entrepreneur with over 16 years of experience in the digital marketing industry and over 20 digital political campaigns all around the world
Lucian is one of the key innovators of the Political and Institutional Communication industries, with a vision of making research, data, technology and paid media work together for politicians and Governments all around the world
Under his leadership, Majoritas Global has been influencing elections in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe through its 12 offices.

Radu Puchiu, former Secretary of State in the General Secretariat of Government, State Councilor on IT & C Issues and Online Services

Radu is a public policy and open Government consultant with more than 10 years experience in public sector
In 2016 he was selected by Res Publica, Google, Visegrad Fund și Financial Times in NewEurope100 top of innovation leaders in East and Central Europe
His experience also includes over three years in online marketing and over five years in online and branding projects.

Vlad Hatieganu, Co-Founder and Manager of Majoritas Insights

He set up and managed for three years the Regional Centre for Excellence in Civil Aviation (ReCECA), the first Romanian company to leverage domestic civil aviation expertise on international markets
The Centre was the first in Romania to win two international twinning projects, valued at €3.3M.

Dan Mercea, Senior Lecturer in Sociology @ the University of London and Associate Editor of Information, Communication & Society

He has a lasting interest in the implications flowing from the adoption and repurposing of Internet technologies in various domains of social and political activity
Over the course of this decade, his empirical research has focused on the impact of Internet-enabled networked communication on participation in protest politics.

Petrit Selimi, CEO @ Millennium Foundation Kosovo, Former Acting Foreign Minister and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo

He is a recipient of the prestigious Marshall Memorial Fellowship with the German Marshall Fund of Unites States.
Petrit has lectured in diverse topics in Yale, Harvard, Georgetown, NYU, George Washington University, LSE, etc. and was featured and profiled in New York Times, The Economist, Wired Magazine, BBC, NPR, etc.

Cristina Moise, Data Architect

She is a hands-on data architect with over 10 years’ experience in data analytics
Cristina took part in several initiatives: analytics researching programs, assets development, communities’ creation
Currently, Cristina is doing a Ph.D. program in Human Languages Technologies and most of the research topics are related to politics.

Armando Regil, Founder, President and CEO of i2Co: School of Transformative Leadership, whose mission is to inspire and accelerate leaders through transformational learning experiences.

i2Co School aims to bring game changing innovation processes that lead to creative solutions for civil society, business and governments to help achieve systemic change and more citizen centered outcomes
Armando is member of the Experts Network of the World Economic Forum and Geopolitical Intelligence Services, founded by H.S.H. Prince Michael of Liechtenstein.

Bálint Porcsalmi, Political activist, executive president of UDMR

He is an experienced political operative: for years he worked as a freelance consultant, providing strategic communication and campaign planning for political organizations, decision-makers, and candidates
Currently, he serves as executive president of the Hungarian party in Romania – the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania.