www.ChrisLaBossiere.com

As my friend Ken Chapman likes to say, most of his mentors are under 30. He recognizes that the best and brightest of that generation are actually very active, influential and interesting people who care deeply of the city, but may not be in the traditional meeting rooms, private golf courses and big company c-suites we used to associate with power and influence.

It has been obvious to me for some time that there are thousands of next generation Edmontonians, who are largely interconnected by social media, and choose to be part of self-created organizations which have no or loosely matured bylaws, policies, or shareholders. Yet they swing a pretty big stick when it comes to influence, the ability to spread a message or a meme, and seemingly are not willing to subscribe to the old definitions of power hoarding, secrecy and walled gardens behind secret handshakes and membership dues.

Some of these organizations are ones that have been enabled by social media tools, which give everyone an equal voice and eliminate a top-down, hiearchical approach. These are some of those organizations that have formed in the last few years, in no particular order. When they decide to use their connections and naturally appointed leaders and connectors to get behind something, we should be prepared to watch great things happen in this city.

• DemoCamp (a grassroots, event driven group of software and technology developers and enreprenuers)
• Edmonton ArtScene (a non-profit initiative that brings together young business and creative professionals (ages 18-40) through the arts, culture and creative industries)
• Changecamp (a participatory and web-enabled face-to-face event that brings together citizens, policy-makers, technologists, design-thinkers, change agents and media creators)
• Emerging Business Leaders (Emerging Business Leaders is a not for profit organization that brings together young, career focused individuals.)
• Edmonton New Technology Society - ENTS (The Edmonton New Technology Society is a community group based in Edmonton, Alberta that offers a collaborative space to teach, learn and develop projects.)
• Edmonton Next Gen (Next Gen is about creating a city that attracts and give voice to the Next Generation in the life and growth of our community.)
• Pecha Kucha Events (Ran by Next Gen) (an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.)
• Reboot Alberta (Reboot Alberta is about you become more diverse and interesting.  It is going to be the place where the New Political Compass for Alberta will be explored, discussed and understood and, hopefully,  appreciated by Progressive Albertans.)
• interVivos (The iV committee is a group of 18-35 year olds who are entrepreneurs, communicators, policy analysts, graphic designers, fundraisers and, generally, people who care.)

Beyond these grassroots built organizations are the many formal organizations which have traditional structures and memberships, which I would argue are starting to lose influence, OR gain traction from the engaged constituents that get engaged by the above.

My point, if I have one, is that these are the new Rotary Clubs, Chambers of Commerce and NGO's of our next generation of leaders. I believe that they have power and influence, but are changing the top-down mentality of yesteryear. They are truly grassroots in that everyone who cares to participate, are given an equal voice, and as their genesis would demonstrate, are easily created by passionate individuals who gain acceptance based on their principals.

I may have missed some, but what is great is that by registering a domain name, and compelling like-minded individuals on social media tools like Twitter and Facebook, are all it takes to start one of your liking. I think that is pretty cool.