Don't miss it!
The
Netroots Nation conference is, as you likely already know, in Detroit this summer (July 17-20 at Cobo Hall). This morning, they announced the panel line-up and it's astonishing.
I was privileged to be part of the panel selection process which was nothing short of excruciating. We had to take a list of nearly 400 excellent submissions and winnow it down to 80 of the best. And the best they are.
This excruciating winnowing process starts with teams of people who receive several dozen submissions to rate. These submissions are grouped around specific topics. For example, my group was "State and Local". After the ratings are returned to the organizers, a conference call is held (sometimes more than one) with all of the reviewers and their list of panels is narrowed down to about a quarter or a third of the original.
Then a final selection committee looks at ALL of the remaining panels and scores them in the same way the first-pass reviewers did. This committee was tasked with reviewing nearly 200 panels. Taking that list down to the final 80 took multiple conference calls which lasted upwards of two hours each.
I can't over-emphasize the care that was taken to be sure we picked the best panels for the final 80. The selection committee was a Who's Who of progressive activists representing a cross-section of the progressive movement. We took extreme care in making sure that the panels were diverse in topic, in racial and gender make-up, and that we covered as many of the essential progressive issues as was humanly possible.
The result -- though some are sure to complain because there are always some folks who will never be happy -- is an outstanding collection of panels, the likes of which you won't see anywhere else.
Here is a list of the panels that are Michigan-specific:
In addition, the Daily Kos elections team is doing their annual elections panel:
Let's Get Ready to Rumble! Q&A on the 2014 Midterms
Another particularly compelling panel is one called Would You Call Me A Redsk*n to My Face? The Power of Words and Images in Perpetuating Racial Stereotyping.
Here's what Raven Brooks, Executive Director of the Netroots Nation and the Netroots Foundation, had to say about this year's selections:
Our 2014 agenda includes a strong lineup of panels on economic issues, particularly around fighting against corporate influence and for more progressive, populist policies that help the middle class. We also have lots of content on the upcoming election cycle, as well as 2016, and much more.
People come to Netroots Nation each year to hear about the next big issue or idea. This year’s agenda includes panels focused on the most current fights, sessions highlighting new progressive ideas and discussions on cutting-edge campaigning.
We’ll be covering issues ranging from student debt to immigration, as well as topics not often discussed broadly in the progressive movement, like closing the school-to-prison pipeline and transgender issues within the military. We’ll also be featuring some important movement-related discussions that you won’t find anywhere else, including sessions analyzing our own diversity as a movement and how we can do better.
This year, 53% of our speakers are people of color, and the number of African American panelists and panel moderators went up 13% from last year, to 29%. In addition, 61% of panelists/moderators are women, helping us with our ongoing goal of pushing the importance of women’s voices being heard. 42% of the panels selected came from first-time submitters.
To say that this is groundbreaking is an understatement. No other organization that I have been affiliated with has gone to such extraordinary lengths to be inclusive and diverse. Netroots Nation gets it right.
You can see the full line-up HERE. The training sessions (which are equally impressive) have also been announced and those are HERE.
NOTE: If you are a Michigander, you can get a discounted rate on your registration fee. Click HERE and you'll get the discounted rate of only $195.
See you there!
Photos by Anne C. Savage