For 10 years, I sold campaigning technology to organisations who wanted to change the world. Then at the 2024 General Election, I saw what we'd built from peeking inside Parliament—it's a disaster. We have the data to understand zones of influence.

We know the behavioral science behind effective communications. We have sophisticated targeting tools that have existed for decades. Yet instead we're running spam factories telling MPs to oppose their own manifestos, alienating the parliamentary staff who are actual gatekeepers and generally causing more harm than good. This isn't a tech problem—it's a strategy problem.

Through interviews and experience, this session exposes what happens when the sector defaults to outdated tactics, how current approaches harm democratic engagement, and what campaigns look like when you design around political reality instead of supporter expectations.