Peter Kellner, YouGov President, to Give Keynote Address at G2010

Peter Kellner, President of YouGov, is to give a keynote address at the first Government 2010 Event in London on October 22nd, 2009.

UK society is changing.  Technology is playing a huge part.  Who would have predicted that one of the the most consistently accurate political pollsters in the UK would be a company that uses all digital survey tools – that engages with respondents using web 2.0 technologies?  Indeed when YouGov was established as an Internet-native research agency many in the research establishment claimed it couldn’t be done .  And yet, in election after election, YouGov has shown that hundreds of thousands of people that make up the company’s survey panel tend to get things right. 

In his keynote address at G2010 Peter Kellner will use the firm’s own research data to show that so-called web 2.0 technologies are transforming the way people communicate, interact and entertain themselves. 

He will argue that if government is to remain current and relevant it needs to open up to a society that is more information savvy than government itself.  People of all ages are, increasingly, by-passing traditional media and creating their own.  They are communicating via a myriad of new social networking tools.  They have the ability to build better web based information portals than government itself.

Which begs the very question being asked by Government 2010: What should next generation government look like?  Peter’s keynote will set the scene for a fascinating debate. 

Peter has been a journalist and political commentator for more than 30 years, working for the Sunday Times, Independent, New Statesman, and Evening Standard as well as broadcast news productions like BBC Newsnight and Channel 4 News.