Choosing a topic and title

What is absolutely critical from your area expertise that this audience needs to understand? Don’t just think that because you’re an expert in bilateral African swallow evolution that everyone at your conference should know about every nook and cranny. Ask yourself some questions: what are new, key findings that they might not know about? How can a piece of your expertise help the larger conference community grow? Remember that you’re not blessing the audience with your infinite cosmic power; you are providing a service that you want them to benefit from.

Next: choose a title that’s going to rope them in. Don’t be obvious, in most cases– again, think about your audience and what they’ve come to the conference to learn. One of the most frustrating things I see on the political conference circuit are poorly titled token panels like, “Why We Need Women to Win Elections.” First of all, boooooring. Second of all, the people who actually need to hear that message aren’t going to go to a panel called that.

I used the following example from my past as an RA on campus recently. I was responsible for the sexual assault awareness programming for my quad, and I knew that I wouldn’t get students to attend something called “Sexual Assault Awareness Night.” Instead, I stole the idea from a training I’d attended, where we took the name of a popular game show at the time (who remembers “Singled Out“?) and made all of the questions and answers about sexual assault awareness. Yes, it’s tricking people. But sometimes people need to be tricked into getting educated.

Copybloggers’ headline writing series also applies to panel naming in many respects, if you need extra help.

Choosing panelists

This can be challenging for most of us. We’re pulled in several directions: we want to get famous people onto our panel so that people will come; we want to promote our friends and their work; we want to have people that have interesting ideas. (I was lucky for my Netroots panel, since my panelists fit many of these bills, haha.)

Before you get to the famous and the friends, though, I want you to think about some other questions. First, who’s not just writing smart things about your topic, but who can actually explain them in an engaging way to an audience? Honestly, many writers and academics make terrible presenters. The panelists don’t have to be the most fun or funniest, but they should do more than drone on as they read a prepared statement.

Next, who do you know that has something challenging to say on your topic? You don’t just want panelists who will congratulate each other; you’ll want them to interact and play off each other. That doesn’t mean they have to be douchey or mean, just willing to be a little different if it’s called for.

On the topic of famous people: yes, having one on your panel is extremely helpful for getting people to choose it from all the other panels that are available in that time slot. It’s true. So, if you choose a famous person, maybe consider choosing someone else who’s not so famous, but meets other, stronger criteria above, so they get some elevation out of the process.

Last, but probably most important: Choose people from different genders, races and backgrounds. I’m not saying this to be nice, or even as an ethical argument. People from different backgrounds make for a more interesting panel. It’s like DNA– see this post I wrote about it, which also plays a major role in my book.

Preparing for the panel

Depending on how in-depth your panel is, anywhere from a few weeks to a week before the panel, email your panelists and lay out what you need from them. Come up with 3-4 questions for them to choose from as a guide for what you want the panel to focus on. Make it clear that you want the audience to take away clear, concrete ideas and action items–this is not just story time.

Give them a time limit that they are supposed to work within (generally 7-10minutes is about right for the average panel), and warn them that you will cut them off if they go over.

Tell them that if they are presenting case studies as an illustrative example of how things work or should work, the case studies must be replicable. Too often (especially on panels about social media and blogging), a case that is unbelievably outstanding is presented, and key points about what really made the success–such as participant’s relationships with key influencers–are left out. This is so damaging to the wider community: When people think that all they have to do, for example, is come up with a nice charity idea and ask their friends to help, they become disappointed and turned off of social media when it doesn’t work.

I also advise against using any PowerPoint presentations, unless you have strong images or graphics. (I myself go for the TED-style of PowerPoint, with just large images and one or two words on each slide.) It’s too tempting for a presenter to just read what’s on screen and not engage with the audience at all.

If there are heavy-duty materials that need to be shared, determine ahead of time a place online where you can share each panelist’s materials: a blog, a wiki, SlideShare, etc.

On the day of the panel

Ask your panelists to meet a half-hour before the panel starts and discuss quickly what each person is going to talk about. Confirm that there are no egregious overlaps in topic. Determine the order that each panelist will present in.

Make sure all your AV is working, and if there are going to be lots of social media users in your audience, choose a hashtag for your panel. (Try just adding a single word to the conference’s main hashtag– for example, we used #nn10rock.)

Get a 2-sentence bio from each of your panelists. Their full bios are either in the conference program or on the conference website, so don’t worry about using the whole thing.

During the panel

Give an overview of the panel topic: Set the stage for your panelists based on what you know they’re going to present, and ask your audience a few questions about the topic that they can answer with a show of hands. Introduce your panelists with the short bios you gathered.

Let your panelists present, but keep to your promise to cut them off when their time is up. Take notes for questions while they’re speaking.

Start the Q&A period of the panel by asking a few pointed questions based on the notes you took. Ask them to explain one interesting detail further.

When it’s time to open the questions up to the audience, warn them of one very big important point: You will not tolerate anyone who gives an entire history of the project their working on, and then asks a random question at the end. We know you’re just there to self-promote, and we’re interested in having a conversation. Using up a lot of time to ask a question does the whole community a disservice. Instead, say your name, that you’re working on [name of project], and you want to know x. Anything more than that will find you cut off.

I know it sounds harsh, but it’s the only way to get through a lot of questions, and to have a productive Q&A session at most conferences.

Following up

At the end of the panel, remind people where they can find the materials online, and then actually gather and post those materials within 24 hours, if possible. Share the materials with wider audiences on Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Invite comment and critique, and improve your panel stylings based on that feedback.

June 3-4: Personal Democracy Forum, New York City. This is one of my favorite conferences all year because it’s one of the few that blend many worlds well together: Technology, electoral politics, advocacy politics and cultural analysis. I’m giving a 10-minute talk on Thursday, June 3, that will (definitively!) answer the question: “Can the Internet fix politics?” Muwahaha. Other luminaries on the speaking roster include Howard Rheingold, Clay Shirky, Cheryl Contee, Jane Hamsher, Arianna Huffington, Esther Dyson, Anil Dash and many, many more. Register today — I’ve got a code to give you $100 off the registration; just email me and ask for it.

June 7-9: America’s Future Now, Washington DC. A yearly pilgramage to DC for progressives, where we talk strategy and tactics for challenging the right-wing agenda. I’ll be moderating a workshop on Tuesday morning, June 8, on social networking with Toby Chaudhuri, and we’ve actually turned it into a gameshow format: Social Media Jeopardy! Contestants will be Lizz Winstead, Garlin Gilchrist II, Scott Goodstein and Heather Holdridge. Also, Monday night, June 7, will see the DC launch of my book, thanks to Toby and Scott of Revolution Messaging, who are throwing me a killer party. Wooooo! Register today for all the goods.

June 9-11: Making Media Connections, Chicago, IL. I’m thrilled to be keynoting this gathering of non-profit communicators, put together by the Community Media Workshop. This year’s theme is “Storytelling and Strategy in the Digital Age,” which hits home strong for me– it’s through our stories that we have always made change, and our shiny new digital tools give us unprecedented capabilities to tell them. Register today for this amazing conference. (PS — That Friday night, June 11, I’ll be reading at Women & Children First, and having a party afterwards nearby.)

I’m pleased as punch to be speaking at this conference/show next week — should be a rollicking good time, with a stellar lineup of really interesting speakers. I’ll be talking about what dissent, muckraking and diversity really mean for the businesses of the future, which has been a nice challenge for me to write. Video clips will be posted once I have them!

So! An early New Year’s resolution: I’m gonna try to get on the ball for next year. Already thinking of SXSW, Allied Media Conference, US Social Forum, Personal Democracy Forum, Women Who Tech, America’s Future Now, NonProfit 2.0, NTEN and more; what do you recommend in the social tech, media, politics, activism, and social justice fields? Conferences & unconferences, big ‘n’ small. Leave ‘em in the comments (links to conferences would be helpful), and I’ll publish a big list in the next few days.

It’s that time of the year where SXSW asks us to garner mega amounts of attention for the panels we’re proposing for next year’s Interactive conference. This is a Big Deal, and I’m joining forces with all the other fabulous people around me to co-promote everyone’s hard work. So, take 3 minutes to register and vote for us!

My panels:

• Social Media, Social Capital: Boot Camp:
  Me and Susan Mernit will give an introductory workshop showing how folks can get on board the mighty train. Update: Tara Hunt‘s joining us, too!
• Beyond Tokenism: How Social Media Can Fix S***:
  Me, Rob Biko Baker, Veronica Arreola and Cheryl Contee will hold a panel on what’s at stake sociopolitically with social media. I’ll be shamelessly promoting my book, Share This!.

My friends’ gigs:

• Social Justice and Video Games: by Latoya Peterson with N’Gai Croal and Naomi Clark; invited Professor Andre Brock
• The Netroots After The Obama Victory with Amanda Marcotte and what’ll be an all-star lineup fer sure
• Not the Silent Majority: Women in Politics Online: by Sarah Granger with Shireen Mitchell, Erin Kotecki-Vest, and Cheryl Contee.
• Mom Blogging – Beyond Swag and Diaper Bags: This one is with Veronica Arreola and PunditMom
• Bumpin Up: Has the Glass Ceiling Ever Smacked you in the Butt by Allyson Kapin and a slew of Important Women In Tech
• Web TV That Doesn't Suck with Marc Faletti

UPDATE: I was in the social justice frame o’ mind when I first wrote this, and forgot other Good People:

• Don’t Stop Believin: Why Karaoke WILL Change the World with Tara Hunt and the Whuffaoke crew
• RT: I’m Going to Kill Myself. Preventing Suicide Online with Chris Gandin Le

(Am I missing you? Let me know!)

Thanks in advance for helping to keep social cause stuff on the plate at such an influential conference. It means a lot to us out here on the front lines!

I wanted to share with you an amazing worldwide conference that I’m participating in next week. It’s called “Women Who Tech,” and it brings together hundreds of women who leverage their technology savvy to inspire change and transform the world. And it takes place all online and on the phone!

Women Who Tech
When: May 12, 2009. Panels are 50 min long and run from 11AM EDT to 6PM EDT.
Where: Everywhere via phone and web
http://womenwhotech.com/
A mere $10 for a whole day of goodness

I participated last year, and at first I thought the distance thing was going to be strange– but it’s absolutely incredible, and I highly recommend joining in the fun. What’s great is that this is really not just for women who currently tech– if you’re interested social media, launching a startup, learning about new tools… this is *the* place to be.

I’ll be moderating this panel:

What Shirky Didn’t Tell Us – 4PM EDT
This panel will look at problems that are arising along gender, class and race lines within the new paradigms of Web 2.0, 3.0 and beyond. When we remove explicit structure from the organizing and tech equation, inherent structure arises– illustrating through technology just how far we have to go for social equality. But we don’t want to just kvetch about the problems: this panel will present and brainstorm solutions together. Panelists: Allison Fine, techPresident and Personal Democracy Forum, Tanya Tarr, AFSCME.

Thennnnn, there are parties that evening in major cities for participants to get together and socialize. Shockingly, I’m throwing the NYC party. Details:

NYC Women Who Tech After-Party
6:30pm – 9:00pm
Donnybrook
35 Clinton St (corner of Stanton)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=73623154033
Drink specials and noshy things galore!

Feel free to come by and say “hi” even if you’re not attending the conference. Other parties are scheduled for DC, San Francisco, London and Atlanta, too.

I can’t express enough how excited I am to be part of this gang. Please feel free to forward on, and if you’re one of those journalist types and you want to write about the events or women in technology in general, drop me a line!

Lest I sound like a broken record, I’ve been trying to think of ways to use my own privilege and explain to those who don’t get it why this is important. (I know I said I was giving up bridge-building, but if I’m going to maintain my sanity in conference season, I’ve got to say something.) It’s easy for organizers to brush people like me off: oh, there they go making trouble again, sigh. There are times where I love making trouble (hi, smarmy Newsbusters guy and your T&A video strategy), but this is one of those times where I’m actually trying to help people make their conferences better: not just look better so that people like me will be quiet, but actually have better content. And this is how.

Perhaps others have used this metaphor before, but as I was walking and talking with my friend Dawn in Coney Island the other night, I hit on this idea of genetic diversity. You know how inbreeding is a Bad Idea? When you get too much of the same material in the gene pool, you get crazy mutations and then eventually the species dies off. Dies. Off.

Ahhhhh, but when you mix it up, when you diversify the material you’re messing around with, you get brand new traits and feature sets that would never ever have happened otherwise. You keep going down that road, and eventually you get new species, stronger species, etc. In short: it’s better. Way, way better.

A bunch of the same people from the same backgrounds at a conference are going to spend a lot of time on ideas that are either not that interesting to the larger world around them or congratulating each other on a job well done (as their species slowly dies off). Panels of folks from wildly different backgrounds are going to spark new ideas (good and bad ones, I imagine) and challenge the paradigms within which we all work. Out of new ideas and challenges come change, movement, progress.

Isn’t that what we’re all shooting for, here, when we both organize and attend these things?

WAM!‘s gotten to be huge, and it’s hard to say how I feel about that. It’s like when your favorite restaurant gets discovered, and the atmosphere changes because the throngs are rushing in to discover the yummy treats. Yep, I’m thrilled for my favorite conference, and it was still like camp-for-grownups, but I did lose some intimacy with my fellow attendees. There’s a group of “old-timers” who are already saying things like, “Wow, remember when it was 10 of us hanging out afterwards?” during the afterparty, in which around 50 women crammed into the very generous Amanda Marcotte’s room. (Who is the quintessential afterparty-hotel-room-hostess with the mostest, by the way. I was amazed at her mad skillz, and learned much from her party kungfu.)

Pictures galore from the conference are on Flickr.

Continuing the theme of “women who work together, rock together” when I got home, I attended the first-ever Women Who Tech Telesummit on Monday. That’s right, it was the first conference I was ever able to attend in my yoga pants and t-shirt. We dialed in to listen to the panelists and watched the presentations via ReadyTalk. (Hint for future participants: use a separate computer to log in to both via Skype and ReadyTalk. It was like having a TV with really good shows on all day.)

The two panels that blew me away were Tara Hunt’s “Women And Social Capital,” with panelists Arianna Huffington and Joan Blades. While Arianna and Joan are always inspiring and fun to listen to, I have to say, it was Tara’s opening remarks that really got me thinking. I’m going to write more extensively about this, but she pointed out that women tend to hide themselves online, using pseudonyms and private profiles on services, which often can mean we are not shaping the discourse. I’d never thought of it that way, and it was inspiration for me to set my profiles free. Go free, little ones! I’ll be implementing a redesign of dz.com to reflect my newfound carefree abandon. Wish me luck.

Equally compelling was the panel “Web 2.0: Hot Or Not?” I can’t wait for the podcast of this session to come out, there were so many interesting tools and concepts for measuring the success of social energy. I’ll post links when I get them, but all the panelists here were just completely dynamic and amazing.

What else can I tell you? On a personal note, I’m heading off this weekend to Cheryl and Mike’s wedding, and then commencing on the mad prep for my month-long trip to Berlin. Oh, let me leave off with a cute postcard from Jim Hightower: he married John Weiss of the Colorado Independent this week. Tee hee.

Then, I met Jason Alexander!

And then, he mentioned having my business card in his pocket at the beginning of the speech he gave at the gala we were all attending!

Tee hee. All thanks to Take Back America.

• Empowering online communities (full color), 2.3MB
• Empowering online communities (printable black-n-white), 1.1MB

Also, here’s the link to the resource list: http://del.icio.us/tag/wamweb2.0

• I went to SWSXi, and was largely unimpressed. There wasn’t a the sense of forward-thinking that I expected, nor the ground-breaking innovations. The parties were so-so. I had the best time hanging out with grrls from the feminist blogosphere, and with my Hightower co-worker, Laura. Oh, and note to anyone organizing a conference for thousands of geeks: please make sure the wifi actually works at the convention.
• I’m speaking at two conferences coming up here in the near future: Facing Race, here in NYC on Friday; then Women Action Media up in Boston on March 31 & April 1. Guess what I’ll be talking about? That’s right, politics and technology, focusing on social media. YUM.
• Er, I feel like there was more than this. Hrm. I seem to have lost all eight trains of thought. More when I get them back…

• Presentation: Web 2.0 (PDF, 2.2MB)
• Presentation: Web 2.0, printable version (PDF, 2.1MB)
• Glossary: Web 2.0 (PDF, 32kb)

[If you weren't in LA, you might find it interesting, but my disclaimer is that this isn't in any way an end-all be-all on "the Web 2.0." It's a primer for media folk who wanted to be brought up to speed, and avoids geek-speak as much as possible. :-) ]

On the upshot, I finally got to meet Jill from Feministe, who is one of my biggest online heroines. I got all flustered. (Warning, mutual blog-crushing happening.)