The excitement is rising here at WebsEdge as we get ready for one of our favorite events of the year – the Global Health Council’s annual conference.  The theme this year is Securing a Healthier Future in a Changing World and as usual it takes place at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washington DC.

We’ve been covering the Council’s annual event as Global Health TV now for six years. It’s always a really interesting mix of speakers and networking sessions and I’m sure this year will be no exception. But the theme this year is different. It takes a look at the challenges facing health systems in developing countries as population’s age.

It’s an issue we’re all only too familiar with in our own countries. But when resources are truly scarce the problem is a lot more acute.  It’s hard enough keeping people alive when faced with diseases such as AIDS and Malaria. But it’s a whole different set of challenges when you need to deal with non-communicable diseases such as cancer and kidney disease. And it has a whole set of implications for health spending and capacity building.

As always we’re not going to Washington empty handed. Whilst I can’t wait to meet and interview old friends and new I also take great delight in showing the case study films we’ve made from literally all over the world. And this year is no exception with organizations represented as diverse as the World Bank Foundation and the Aga Khan Network. And countries visited including South Africa, Afghanistan and Mali.

One thing that I have noticed change over the years is the audience. The conference itself has always drawn a devout following of doctors, aid agencies, NGO’s and other global health professionals. But the rise of social media has meant an ever-engaged population. This year, for example, the number of people following our progress on The Lancet has risen to over 300, 000 a month. It used to be you couldn’t get an audience for your global health message – but that’s  changed. We’re no longer preaching to the choir.

So it is time to pack our bags. We’re going somewhere very familiar but to an event that in many ways has changed out of all recognition since six years ago.

Follow us on Twitter @GlobalHealth_TV and watch our films and reports on www.globalhealthtv.com

So it seems the Government now has cold feet over its plans for a national network for local tv – the so called Channel 6. The plan was to have a national channel occupying a prime slot on the various EPGs’ with opt outs for local channels. In this way, or so the argument went, there could be sufficient advertising revenues and the project could be pump primed with £50 million of BBC money.

But despite 50 expressions of interest the word is that the national spine is unlikely to happen. That’s clearly going to disappoint a large number of people but is it really such a bad thing?

The reality is that there is no real business model for a national/local broadcast tv service. There just aren’t the numbers to make advertising work and it’s unlikely that there will be enough compelling content to allow for a subscription model. So yes you can subsidise  it through public funds – however you disguise this – but the business model itself just doesn’t add up.

But does that matter? Surely if this is in the public good then £50 million isn’t such a large amount of money to spend. But to me that’s missing the point. There is real opportunity for local innovation here. Not just in the business model but, far more importantly, in the provision of the tv services themselves. And if you seek to impose the wrong technical and business solution you’ll stifle that innovation.

The democratization of the means of video production and distribution through the internet means everybody can now be a broadcaster. And if you take a look at some of the work now being created you’ll also agree with me that is of an extremely high standard. But most important of all the community is both the broadcaster and the audience. And that means for the first time you get real community engagement without spending money.

So the WebsEdge team is recently back from Toronto. And I have to say the warm weather we’re enjoying in London is most welcome after the minus 15 degrees we endured there.

But Toronto is of course a great city and we had a good week. We were there to provide television for Alzheimer’s Disease International’s (ADI’s) annual conference. It’s an event that brings Alzheimer’s societies together from all over the world. Eminent research scientists share the podium with people living with the disease in many different countries. Each plenary session is packed to the rafters – very unusual in this type of event – as everyone strains to hear the latest developments.

Our programmes brought together case studies of best practice both from research institutes and care homes doing their best to cope with the disease as well as interviews with prominent scientists talking at the conference. It was a rare opportunity to see so much of the good work that’s currently going on.

And it soon became clear to us that something quite different was happening. People were stopping to watch the programmes but they also wanted to participate in them. They wanted to take part in the discussions but they also wanted to use the materials to promote debate at their own events.

Why such an interest? Partly because everybody there was in some way or other effected by the disease. But also because of all the research work currently being done to ultimately look for a cure for the disease. That means people are very keen to try and keep themselves up to date with the latest developments.

And it gives on-line video an important role.  Partly as a way of keeping people up to date on what’s going on globally but perhaps more importantly by spreading a little hope for some very brave people who need it the most.

Watch our content from ADI 2011 here.

As we all know local authorities in the UK are bearing the brunt of public sector spending cuts. Local Government is seeing funding cut by 28% with much of it front loaded. The Local Government Association estimates councils face a funding shortfall of over 6 billion pounds over the next four years.

But whilst we’ve heard a lot of noise on all this, the reality is that these cuts have yet to truly bite. Councils are now signing off budgets for 2011/12 with millions of pounds of savings forcing them to slash frontline services. Birmingham City Council for example has recently announced a record budget reduction of £212 million.

And it’s not just cuts to frontline services of course. These budget cuts mean significant headcount reduction. Jobs are going. And this of course intensifies the pressure – town halls around the country are under siege.

But that’s the problem. In tough times we need more engagement with citizens rather than less. What’s come through to me is that this, bizarrely, has nothing to do with money. Take Channel Surrey for example – channelsurrey.com. Channel Surrey is a community based Internet TV channel for the people of Surrey. It uses many free tools – websites, social media etc – and it’s reporters are all local people. And because they’re taken from lots of different groups they provide a real chance to engage widely with the community.

Channel Surrey is distributed through video players on a whole host of community sites. Which again adds to the opportunity to engage widely. And whilst there is some cost involved to professionally film this content – so it feels like ‘proper’ TV – it’s really a small amount of money.

So the good news for councils throughout the country is that there are many new ways to engage with all members of their societies. And now more than ever there is a real need for them to do this. Lets just hope they do.

Coming back this autumn from the International City and County Managers Association Conference in San Jose was a good opportunity to look at the challenges facing community leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.

WebsEdge/Government produced a series of programmes for both the ICMA and Britain’s LGA earlier in the summer. We interviewed a wide variety of politicians and community leaders and visited towns and cities throughout the two countries. There were clear similarities of approach to the problems caused by the global economic slowdown but there also some significant differences in emphasis.

In America it’s fair to say the harsh economic climate has been a reality longer as far as local government is concerned. Cities get a chunk of their funding from states and that has been cut back in recent years. So there’s a feeling that to some extent they have weathered the storm. They have made the necessary cuts to spending and are in better shape for the upturn when it comes. Whilst in England we’ve just had the Government’s Spending Review, which heralds substantial cutbacks to council grants. And whilst plans have been drawn up there is a distinct feeling of unease in town halls throughout the country.

The big worry in the United States is unemployment. At 9.5 % of the population it has remained stubbornly high. That has a profound effect on city government – both from a financial and a community cohesion point of view. So the focus now is on creating jobs.

As with many other facets of the relationship between the two countries there is more that unites us than divides us! There is a big emphasis in both the UK and US on professional management in town halls. If we can recruit, train and motivate the best minds into local service we’ll do the best we can for our citizens.

There’s also a focus on community. It goes under different names, ‘total place’ ‘big society’ and many others. But the sense is the same. If we coordinate the efforts of the entire public and voluntary sectors we can eliminate waste and provide better and more efficient services. What started out as a response to financial hardship has become a clarion call for better services and community engagement. And you never know, it may just work!

Well I’m writing this coming back from the Canadian Conference on Global Health in Ottawa. And what an interesting conference it’s been. We’ve been broadcasting Global Health TV at the event and have been lucky enough to meet some great people there.

Obviously lots of topics to get our teeth into. For the event we produced films from all around the world and in Ottawa we managed to interview government officials and NGO’s from several countries. And being the first major conference after September’s UN review on the millennium goals lots of soul searching into progress fighting the major diseases.

But two issues really captured my attention in Ottawa. I was particularly struck by the focus on equity. Now many of you will know that the Canadian Society on International Health – the organizers of this week’s event – already work very closely on this issue with the World Health Organisation.

But for me it was a new way of looking at things. When you consider progress on fighting a disease – HIV/AIDS for example – or look at health provision in a particular country, don’t focus on the average. Don’t ask yourself are we saving more lives or raising living standards, ask yourself what we’re doing for the poorest 10% in that society. Because the truth is that even whilst we’re making progress overall it is often the poorest and most vulnerable we’re letting down.

I was also taken by the focus on, and passion for, Pathways to Global Health. There was a recognition at the conference that in many ways Global Health as a discipline is driven by the passion of students. And whilst this is a good thing if the young people aren’t able to chart a route through they’ll become disillusioned and give up. So a new focus has been placed on helping students to plot their course towards a successful career and to agree a set of protocols to enable them to work effectively overseas.

So lots of enthusiasm and a passion to get things done. And perhaps even more impressive a specific set of goals for next year’s meeting. See you in Montreal!

Well we get around don’t we! WebsEdge is producing television programmes at seven different conferences this month including the world’s biggest law enforcement event in Orlando, Europe’s leading social services event in Manchester and the Canadian Society for International Health conference in Ottawa. I guess some 40, 000 people will attend these events and another 250, 000 will view our content through the various on-line channels.

Another of those conferences is the International City and County Managers Association event in San Jose California. And it isn’t just the fact that I’m 35, 000 feet up in the air, connected to the internet, that makes me think of innovation. No, it’s the fact that the WebsEdge team has spent the last week in the heart of Silicon Valley.

And we’ve learnt so much. The ICMA conference attracts a few thousand city managers from all over the United States as well as some from international communities. And whilst some might put a different gloss on it they’re all working through the same problems. In fact it’s one problem – how do you grow a community in the current economic climate?

There were many excellent sessions looking to address this question ranging from prominent economists to leading on-line gaming theorists. But the standout session for me was led by three Silicon Valley CEO’s. They explained eloquently that this was now a global battleground and that companies would simply go where they could prosper the most. But that if a community could attract them the company would repay that through community engagement which would be beneficial for both citizens and employees.

So far so good. But this disguises a major disconnect at the heart of modern economic and social policy throughout the developed world. Consumers  and shareholders are driven by the same thing. The ability to sell goods cheaply whilst making high profits. Nothing wrong with that you may say. But the problem is that our communities need jobs. In fact the unemployment rate in Silicon Valley is 12.5% and that isn’t going to even start to come down until we can use innovation to create jobs and not just raise productivity.

It’s the lull before the storm this week at WebsEdge. We’re dusting down equipment, checking our visas and packing our suitcases ready for our big October roadshow. It’s eight events across three continents ranging from Nursing Management in Dallas, Social Services in Manchester to Sustainability in Hong Kong.

Two projects I’m particularly looking forward to are the International City Managers Association and the International Association of Police Chiefs. And it’s not just the chance to go to San Jose and Orlando. Great as that will be! No, it’s the chance to catch up with old friends and see how their year has been.

I’m particularly keen to find out how they’ve faced up to the challenge of delivering excellent public services in such trying economic times. These community leaders find themselves caught between two increasing pressures – the need to cut costs and the ever-greater demands of the communities they serve.

Ahead of this years events we’ve filmed in literally scores of towns and cities throughout the United States. And despite the challenges we’ve found a spirit of optimism that at first is quite surprising.  What we’ve also found is real innovation. People have understood that cutting budgets alone just won’t do it. You’ve actually got to re-think the whole way you pay for and deliver public services.

And away from the newspaper columns and television cameras you’ll find something else emerging. A new sense of leadership. Men and women who’s only interest is the community they serve. And maybe in the aftermath of these recessions their time has come.

Getting up this morning I listened to the news on the radio. Checked my in box for email newsletters I’ve subscribed to and read the newspaper whilst having my breakfast. I read another newspaper on the way in and have been catching up on favourite news sites since logging on at work. So in the last two hours I’ve consumed literally hundreds of news stories and have paid very little indeed for them.

SO is content really king? Or is it really now just another commodity? I don’t know how they monitor this but I’m told we are bombarded by several thousand media ‘messages’ of all sorts in a day. SO are we diluting our content to such an extent that it is both free and, in many ways, worthless?

Well I’m not sure. I agree that in many ways news is a ubiquitous resource. I can get today’s headlines from a number of free sources with such thin business models that I wonder how they keep going. But there are also stories out there of real value to people. And it’s not just premier league football – though that’s valuable enough – there are many sources of slightly more obscure information that can really make a difference.

Take a project we’re working on with the Local Government Group’s Efficiency Exchange. A fairly simple idea really. They’ve created on-line communities of interest where like-minded people can get together and discuss things backed up by relevant material and video interviews.

And it’s for a very important purpose. Because some within local government have started to realise what many of us have yet to grasp. The cuts in government spending are going to be so deep that just tinkering round the edges isn’t going to hack it. It’s going to take a fundamental re-think of how we deliver public services – and that’s a discussion well worth taking part in.

Right now everyone we talk to is waiting for the emergency budget later this month. And in the public sector they’re bracing themselves for cuts that will surely come. Some commentators are looking for job cuts of around 15% so the public sector can share the pain that the private sector has already endured.

And yes of course over time we need to reduce the budget deficit. And yes of course as an entrepreneur I want to see imaginative ways of doing it. But what bothers me is that it is easy in all this to miss the point and not to appreciate the real value frontline workers bring.

And sometimes if you’re looking for inspiration the public sector is, some would think surprisingly, often the place to come. Let me give you a couple of examples. We’re just finishing filming – alongside the LGA – the first ever local government challenge. It’s an attempt at finding the local government leaders of the future.

Two teams of six battle it out on a series of challenges to find out who is fired and who is hired – a format that might be familiar to some of you. At the last challenge – one to revamp shops on a busy high street – the young people were discussing late into the night the best ways to bring that community to life. Real passion and real commitment, and it’s in the public sector.

And this is also the time to vote for your council worker of the year – www.localgovernmentchannel.com/awards. This year we’re running six categories and again we’re looking for frontline workers who go over and above the call of duty on a daily basis. Just take a look at the finalists and tell me they don’t inspire you! And it has caught the public imagination too with literally hundreds of thousands of visits to the voting page.

And whilst I can’t reveal the winners yet I can tell you about the winner of last year’s Bravery category – Barry from Mansfield. Barry is a street cleaner who put out a fire in a petrol station saving many lives. A real unsung hero and a good friend of ours. So yes lets talk about cuts to the public sector but if we ever lose sight of the contribution that Barry and his colleagues make to our society then whatever money is saved our lives will still be all the poorer.