The Countdown to WeMedia continues!
One week from today, two-hundred of the world’s most innovative leaders, executives, investors, marketers, activists, educators, entrepreneurs and game changers will gather in Miami for a one-of-a-kind conversation about the future. Innovation and entrepreneurship are hot topics right now — more than just buzzwords or back-of-the-napkin concepts, the very idea of innovation and entrepreneurship embodies the unprecedented opportunity to change the world through media and technology that we know exists. WeMedia is about recognizing and capturing those opportunities and taking the big steps necessary to make them a reality.
This week we are highlighting some of the sessions taking place at WeMedia and introduce the influential voices that will drive the conversations. Next week we will give you a front row seat to every session and hear from the game changers who are defining and leading our connected society. We also invite you — as members of the WeMedia community (whether you are scheduled to join us in Miami, or participate from afar online) — to participate and help advance the discussion online, and we’ll tell you how.
Today, we’ll review a few more of the workshops and caucuses at WeMedia — particularly our series of discussions around the future of media. WeMedia has been looking at the future of news for a long time, and this year’s conference is no exception — we have sessions about making journalism without news companies, defining public media, and inspiring change through news.
Its no secret that media companies are struggling — and the future of journalism is very much unknown. Everyone is offering ideas, solutions, and such, but little progress has been made. Our workshop about making journalism work without the companies that have funded it in the past will be different. Why? Consider the talent assembled for this discussion: Carin Dessauer producing, David Bohrman from CNN; Daily Me president Neil Budde; Gannett VP for digital media Jennifer Carroll; J-Lab executive director Jan Schaffer; and Global Voices managing editor Solana Larsen. This won’t just be a discussion, Dan Suwyn, the president of RapidChange, is participating as well – to help realize what significant change in the media industry would look like, in real, practical terms. When we look back on the successful transformation of the news industry, we’ll be able to track it to this discussion.
If you attend the morning caucus on Thursday about the future of Public Media, you will also get one of the first looks at the new paper, Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics, by Jessica Clark, who directs the Center for Social Media’s Future of Public Media Project. Jessica will be joined by Sara Dewitt from PBS Kids Interactive, and others, to look at how current public broadcasting entities might be transformed to serve publics in the open, networked environment, and what policies will underwrite new infrastructures for media for and by the public (e.g. ensuring universal broadband access to building nonprofit fiber-optic backbones to opening up “white spaces” for wireless access). You don’t have to be an NPR nerd or a PBS junkie to find this caucus fascinating, and applicable to a wide variety of other media related challenges.
Our last session focused on news will feature a conversation with Jim Kennedy, vice president of strategy for Associated Press and Amra Tareen, founder of AllVoices, interviewed by George Brock, international editor of Times of London. Their focus is on the role of journalists and news companies in facilitating real change in the world — not just reporting on it, but rolling up their sleeves and getting invovled. Not only do these three have big ideas, they have big plans – and are in a position to re-shape the news industry through their actions. What comes out of this session will basically rewrite the rules for how media companies operate in the future. Are you going to miss that, really?
These are just a few highlights — all of WeMedia is filled with workshops, caucuses, and discussions about how the future of news will unfold, in theory and in practice, and how that impacts everything else we do.
We’ll continue pulling back the curtain and showing you what makes WeMedia a must-attend, can’t-miss, have-to-participate, I-want-to-be-involved, here-is-my-contribution kind of event tomorrow. Here on the blog you’ll find the following:
Thursday: Changing Lives, Changing Cultures — democracy, education, and leadership when the community plays a meaningful role in the process.
Friday: Thinking Papers, Ground Report and Rapporteurs – what you will hear coming out of WeMedia, whether you are in Miami or participating from afar.
And next week: Behind the scenes coverage from WeMedia and insights from those who are gathering for the big event.
Stay tuned.
Brian is Managing Director of little m media which provides strategic guidance and support to organizations around the use of the internet and technology to facilitate communications, engagement, education, and mobilization.