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. Here is a list of the ones that are Michigan-specific:
- Hunger First: The Importance of Food Security in Detroit, and Why We’re so Hungry (for Change)
- The Corporate Takeover of Our Neighborhood Public Schools: A Detroit Case Study – NOTE: I will be moderating this panel.
- Not Just Detroit: How to Fight Back Against Wall Street and Predatory Municipal Finance
- What One of the Country’s Most Polluted Zip Codes Can Teach Us about Environmental and Digital Justice
- Detroit, Rocked City: How the Bankruptcy Led to Retirement Attacks that Could Spread Nationwide
- Creating a Beloved Community: Visionaries for an Inclusive Detroit
- Fighting for Democratic Practices after an Emergency Manager Takeover in Michigan: Report from the Trenches
- Mothers of Murdered Children: Moving from Grief to Action – This one isn’t a Detroit-specific panel but it has lots of Michigan folks on it.
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!
UPDATE: Via Eric Thut from Netroots Nation:
And if anyone would like to volunteer for a few shifts – we cannot do this without you. There are only 5 full-time staff dedicated to the conference and this only is possible through our fantastic volunteers. And trust me – it is fun too.If you are interested drop us an email at volunteers(at)netrootsnation{dot}org.
Photos by Anne C. Savage
