Be the Media! Mini-Conference 2008

The annual Be the Media! Mini-Conference helps participants understand the link between strategic communications and organizing strategies as well as learn essential communications tools and techniques.

Date:  Wednesday, December 3

Time: 9am – 5:30pm (lunch provided)

Location: Third Sector New England’s NonProfit Center, 89 South Street in Boston (close to South Station, click here for directions.)

Cost:  $15 - $35 sliding scale, includes lunch

On-line registration is now closed.  You may call Carolyn at 413-426-2893 to check on availability.

The theme of the third annual Be the Media! Mini-Conference is:  Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of New Media for Grassroots Organizations. 

Communications and media work are powerful tools for organizers and non-profits working on community and social issues, but they can also present challenges, particularly for under-resourced groups.  In recent years, the development of new media tools such as social networking sites, blogs with multi-media content, YouTube, and cell phones as mass communication devices have both given groups more options and raised questions about where to focus already limited staff and volunteer time.  At this year’s conference, we will explore not only how to implement these tools, but identify what are their best and most impactful uses for grassroots organizations.

The conference is designed to serve change makers at levels of communication experience including those who are doing communications work as part of their current positions, such as organizers, executive directors, or policy advocates.

Sponsored by:  Progressive Communicators Network, Third Sector New England and Project Think Different

Co-sponsored by: Boston Women’s Fund, Resist, and Press Pass TV.

OPENING PANEL
  New Media as Communication Tools for Social Change

The panel will be moderated by Charlotte Ryan, Co-Director of MRAP (Movement / Media Action Research Project).  Panelists include:

Nettrice Gaskins, artist, educator, youth advocate and community practitioner
Suren Moodliar, Executive Director of the Organizers Collaborative
Jason Pramas, Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston

MORNING WORKSHOPS - 11:15am to 1pm

When you click to the registration, you will choose 1 workshop to attend during this time slot.

Workshop 1: Overview of Social Networking Tools - Presented by Steve Backman, Suren Moodliar, and Bethany Ramirez

Social networking, first referred to as Web 2.0, offers new opportunities for nonprofit organizations to communicate in new, more interactive and less formal ways with constituents. Encompassing a host of tools from Facebook to Twitter and LinkedIn to Change.org, social networking help you raise funds, recruit volunteers, advance your advocacy agenda and more effectively meet your mission.

However, social networking can very quickly take a lot of time and human resources. This workshop will introduce you to social networking tools that nonprofits have found effective. And it will help you decide which ones are best for which purpose.

Workshop 2: Strategies for Shaping our Media Future: Envisioning Change with the Boston Action Tank – Presented by the Boston Action Tank

The media/communications environment is rapidly changing. Who will control the networks and tools that we use? How can we work pro-actively for media & technology systems to better serve our communities? We will talk about the types of policies, technologies and economics that can create a better media future, and how to win and protect what we need and want. This workshop will use strategy mapping tools in small groups, and is designed for 10-25 people. We hope to learn from you, and to share some tools to help you position your current work in a long-term strategic framework.

Workshop 3: Strategic Communications Basics – Presented by Kelley Chunn

This workshop will examine how to get your message out to current and potential supporters (donors, volunteers, policy makers etc.). We will look at:

-Best (and worst) practices for cause-related marketing; and
-Resources to move you forward.

This workshop is designed for both the savvy and the clueless who are responsible for promoting their nonprofits to key audiences.

AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS - 2:45pm to 4:30pm

When you click to the registration, you will choose 1 workshop to attend during this time slot.

Workshop 4:  Building Your Technology Toolbox

Come join students from area high schools and media technology programs and learn about how to use technology tools to get your message across. Booths will be set up to give you an interactive hands on training in several new media toolkits, including Facebook, YouTube, and even how to start your own website.

Workshop 5:  Narrative & Power: Story-based Strategies for Social Change – Presented by Doyle Canning

“Being the Media” means having a story to tell. Narratives have the power to justify the status quo, and to open imaginations to new social change ideas. This interactive workshop will present the model of story-based strategy – an approach that gives activists a method for storytelling in order to be more effective communicators, campaigners, and organizers.  Story-based strategy combines critical media analysis, strategy skills, and messaging—and connects this to organizing and movement building. You will see some examples of story-based strategy in action, and experiment with the Battle of the Story tool in smaller groups.

Workshop 6:  Creating a Video PSA Or Video Blog For Grass Roots – Presented by Wesley Richardson

In this workshop participants will examine the steps necessary for creating a Video PSA, or Video Blog for their group or organization. Once the creation process has been established we cover the uploading steps and view a video created within the class.  By the end of this session participants will have demystified the process and will have the knowledge to create their very own Video PSA /Video Blog to reflect their groups’ message.

On-line registration is now closed.  You may call Carolyn at 413-426-2893 to check on availability.

 

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES

Boston Action Tank Members:

Steve Backman has close to thirty years experience with software development and technology strategy. Working in corporate software development, Steve was intrigued by emerging standards for cost-effective and forward-looking database systems. Steve launched Database Designs in 1989 to bring emerging new perspectives to nonprofit and public sector organizational processes. He has chosen to keep the company small, independent, and focused. Database Designs provides select clients comprehensive support for unique and creative solutions to web and data challenges.

With liberal arts degrees from Harvard and Yale, Steve turned to political activism in Boston grass roots causes in the 1970s and brings an activist sensibility to his clients' organizational challenges. Today, this means evangelizing about the democratizing power of Open Source, social media, and other new technologies, while aiming to keep organizational mission, objectives and resources center stage.

Doyle Canning is co-director at smartMeme. She works with a diverse community of social change practitioners as a strategist, trainer, facilitator, creative, and messaging coach. Doyle also serves on the funding panel of the Haymarket Peoples’ Fund , practices yoga, and sings. She lives in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Kelley Chunn is the principal of Kelley Chunn & Associates (KCA), an award winning  18 year old state certified (State Office of Minority & Women's Business Assistance) consultancy which specializes in multicultural and cause-related public relations and marketing. KCA specialties include strategic communications planning, advertising, branding, community outreach, audience development, media relations, event planning and management and training.  Partial Client List:  1991 - present: Third Sector New England,  The Boston Women’s Fund, New England Blacks in Philanthropy, 2008 Conference, Boston Public Health Commission, Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, National Institutes of Health, Mattapan, Dimock, Roxbury and Whittier Street Community Health Centers in Boston, WGBH-TV, The Boston Neighborhood Network (Community Access Cable Channels 9 & 23), City of Boston 2004/DNC, YWCA Boston, Gillette, Staples and The Boston Public Library.  In addition, Chunn has served as an Assistant Professor of public relations and marketing at Northeastern University.  She has worked as a news and public affairs writer and producer at TV stations 4, 5, and 7 in Boston.  In 1982, Chunn served as media consultant to the Nigerian government’s National Television Authority in West Africa.  She also worked as a senior communications specialist for the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency.  She is a graduate of New York University and Simmons College School of Communications Management.

Nettrice Gaskins is an artist, educator, youth advocate and community practitioner. Currently, she is the Computer Arts Academic Liaison with the Massachusetts College of Art (MassArt).  At MassArt, she teaches and develops workshops focused on computer art, including imaging, time-based applications, and multimedia. She is also adjunct faculty at UMass/Boston. Nettrice has over twelve years experience in multimedia/digital media, education/training, leadership, youth work and program development. She was the director of the Multimedia Center at Boston Neighborhood Network (BNN). She also founded DigitalArt Communities and provided resources to nearly 20 community media and technology centers across the United States interested in creating their own local digital art youth programs, including several HUD Neighborhood Network sites and the BNN Multimedia Center.

Suren Moodliar is the Executive Director at Organizers Collaborative (OC).  OC’s mission is to identify and develop low-cost, replicable technology, software, and trainings that meets the organizing, outreach, and fundraising needs of small nonprofits. Prior to OC, Suren was the coordinator at  Massachusetts Global Action where he served as a founding board member and coordinator.   His prior experiences include co-managing a US-Canadian network of 65 labor and community-based organizations, advocating for an effective international public health treaty by working with grassroots organizations in Africa, Asia and Latin America, participating in several successful labor union organizing drives and immigrant campaigns, and working in the South African national liberation struggle.

Jason Pramas is a longtime Boston-area labor and community activist. He is specialist in grassroots media strategies and Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston - a progressive online news publication using the latest social media technology. 

Bethany Ramirez is the online communications associate at Third Sector New England, where she coordinates as well as creates and posts web content, including audio and video, and works with program and IT staff to create and communicate with various TSNE e-Communities, including developing TSNE's nascent social networking presence.

Wesley Richardson is the Media Production and Education Manager at Project: Think Different. He is a filmmaker whose work deals with self-reflection as it pertains to culture, language, and human phobias and frequently lectures in galleries and at schools on film as more than entertainment, and as a tool for engagement and activism. He won the award for Emerging Director at the Roxbury Film Festival. His films have been selected to be a part festivals sponsored by Vibe Magazine and Showtime Television, giving him the opportunity to show and speak about his work and outlook in the media. A graduate of Massachusetts College of Art with a BA in Film/Media production and a focus on cultural studies he was nominated to the Bridgewater State Hall of Black Achievement, for activism and academics excellence. Wesley has always sought opportunities to share his understanding of media and cultural studies so that media can be broken down to its simplest forms in order to demystify its creation, expose its intentions, and highlight its potential.

Charlotte Ryan is a sociologist at UMASS Lowell. She also co-directs the Movement/Media Research and Action Project(MRAP) with William Gamson at Boston College. MRAP studies how social change groups develop and disseminate messages. MRAP has worked with unions, domestic violence groups and community based organizations to integrate communication into broader change strategies. Charlotte collaborates with regional and national social movement organizations working to integrate movement and communication strategies. Her current popular writing project is An Activist’s Guide to Frame Analysis.  Charlotte is the author of Prime Time Activism: Media Strategies for Grassroots Organizing (South End Press 1991).

On-line registration is now closed.  You may call Carolyn at 413-426-2893 to check on availability.