Worker Bees Blog

So, there is a daunting task ahead of you if you're up for the challenge: reviewing all the panels submitted for inclusion at SXSW '09 and rating them. There are over 1,000 panels. Yikes. Once again SXSW is using their Panel Picker application to allow people to vote. There are a dozen different categories to choose from.

You do have to set up an account to vote, which I urge you to do if you're at all interested in SXSW. The voting only represents 30% of the equation for a panel to be picked, the other contributing factors are the advisory board feedback (Disclosure: I an once again on the advisory board) and the staff itself.

Having scanned mostly only the categories in which I'm interested, here are the panels I hope you'll check out and perhaps vote on if so inclined:

First and foremost: Shameless plug to vote for mine:

Grokking Bloggers: It's About Love and Underpants. Yeah, you heard me right...underpants!! The fact is that blogs are changing the world in ways large and small, and like any true cultural phenomenon, the power and glory of blogging is best communicated via storytelling. Stats are great, and I've got some, but stories are powerful...and I've some amazing stories to tell about bloggers you may know nothing about, but should.

But other panels I urge you to check out include:

1. Tara Hunt: Making Whuffie: Raising Social Capital in Online Communities, because I love Tara, and she is so smart.

2. Kami Huyse: Measure This! Practical Ways to Quantify Social Media Results...also featuring such powerhouses at KD Paine and Charlene Li!

3. Katie Laird: Strategic PR for Social Media Geeks, mostly because kicking off with a thesis that "Social Media hacks are ruining the PR profession." should ensure a lively debate!

4. Jenna Woodul: First on the Dance Floor: How to Socialize Your Brand, because I love Jenna, and she is so smart.

5+. Ben Metcalfe: Puppets, Theatre and the Conflation of ’Successful’ with ‘Popular’, because in a world where women are still Internalizing the "Catfight" moniker, it sounds like this panel will remind us that feuds, fusses and conflicts are a human condition, not a female condition. It's the main reason I ranked this way over Rebecca Fox's similar Why Is Professional Blogging Bloodsport for Women?. But YMMV.

6. Rachel Kramer Bussel: Nom Nom Nom: The Secrets of Successful Foodblogging, because did you say "free cupcakes"???

7. Aruni Gunasegaram: Building a Web Business After Hours, since that's exactly how BlogHer was for the first year.

8. Charlene Li: Achieving Balance Between Work And Life (Yeah, Right!). I used to never relate to such discussions, not being a mom and all, but it's not just moms that have trouble achieving balance.

9. Allyson Kapin: Breaking Through the Digital Ceiling. Given how much I blog about the value of diversity here, how could I not point you to this panel?

10. Beth Kanter: Social and Nonprofits ROI: Case Study Slam, because it's Beth and because the format sounds cool, and because I like hearing about social media for social good.

11. Gwen Bell: Women Engaging Tech: Ferocity Fuels the Phenomenal, because I love Gwen, and she is so smart.

12+. Suzanne Freyjadis-Chuberka : How Feminist Bloggers are Changing the World. i do wish who else Suzanne was lining up, but gotta support my feminist blogger sisters. On a similar note (and with a similar desire to see the panelists they'll line up), check out Heather Gold's Everything I Needed to Know About the Web I Learned from Feminism and Samhita Mukhopadhyay's That's Not My Name: Beating Down Online Misogyny

13. Deb Rox: Queerosphere: Same Sex (Link) Love Interactive, because I love Deb, and she is so smart. And because we need t push back on the homophobia that is actually pretty problematic in some male-dominated geek spaces (think WoW.)

14. Chris Carfi: Flashmarkets: From The Roman Agora to the Mobile Web, because I love Chris, and he is so smart.

15. Angela Conyers Benton: Digital Urbanites: How to Become Part of the New Social Capital, because I saw Angela speak at Blogging While Brown, and she is young and smart and entrepreneurial.

16. Dawn Foster: Reputation Systems Smackdown: Community Benefit or Detriment, because I love Dawn, and she is so smart. And because we're always trying to wrap our heads around how to enable community feedback, without encouraging popularity contests or facilitating gaming of any such system.

17. Louis Gray: Beyond Aggregation -- Finding the Web's Best Content, because I think Louis is a great new tech blogger on the scene, and because information overload is my constant companion.

18. Liz Henry: Open Source Disability Gadgets: DIY for PWD, because I love Liz, and she is so smart.

19. Carmen Van Kerckhove: Can Social Media End Racism?, because I sure hope it can.

20. A bonus WTF, is this serious? panel for you to check out:

Katje Sabin's Weaves, Waves and Wisps: Human Hair Sculpture. it is what it sounds like: A session on hair braiding. Camp Baby would be so proud.


There you go...please register and vote away.

Labels: bloghercon, SXSW, women speakers