Friday, October 19, 2007

Blogging While Brown Conference

I have only been a blogger since January 2007. When I first entered the blogosphere the only blogger that I knew was my sister. Over the past few months I have enjoyed the exchange of ideas with bloggers of all nationalities, politics and geography. With one or two exceptions ... every blogger that I've met has been through my computer screen ... out here in cyberspace.

Perhaps it is time for us to meet face-to-face?!

The 2008 Blogging While Brown conference is my opportunity to meet some of these talented brothers and sisters in the so-called real world. The BDPA Education & Technology Foundation plans to attend this conference next year. Early Registration is now open for Blogging While Brown 2008. In the spirit of Ujamaa I plan to take advantage of the $100 early registration rate. It will never get less expensive!

The purpose of the event is to give Bloggers of Color an opportunity to meet each other for the first time, discuss current issues affecting Bloggers of Color, and learn about the latest technology that will assist them with publishing their work.

Blogging While Brown was created in response to widespread dissatisfaction with the amount of diversity in some of the largest blogging conferences. A critical mass of Bloggers of Color have yet to attend these established conferences, however the initial response from Bloggers of Color to the idea of holding their own conference has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

Bloggers of Color are excited about a conference, for, by and about them and look forward to moving beyond the single panel or discussion focusing on diversity that are typically featured at some of the larger blogging conferences.

The conference is in Atlanta, GA on July 25-27, 2008. The host hotel is the Hilton Atlanta Downtown. Pass this on to your friends and readers.

Those of you that share your insights by posting comments on the BETF-Blog are just as important as I am to the growing success of our online community. As such, this invitation to attend the 2008 Blogging While Brown conference is open to any of the active BETF-Blog readers that come here regularly.

Stay tuned! I understand that the Conference Planning Committee will provide guidelines for workshop suggestions and facilitator proposals in the near future. Get on board now because 2008 will be an amazing year for bloggers! Blogging While Brown is the first international conference for, by, and about Bloggers of Color and the readers who love and comment on them.

Will you be in attendance?

3 comments:

C Samuels Jr said...

This is great that a conference for US by US is coming to light. What would be cool is that some of the events are streamed Live to those that can not attend for a fee and then post a podcast of the event highlights.

Unknown said...

Cliff - It sounds like you should volunteer to serve on the planning committee so that they are aware of the option for live video streaming (hint, hint).

I'm curious to see if BDPA takes advantage of the marketing opportunity presented by this Bloging While Brown conference. Especially since it is likely that our 2008 National BDPA conference will be held the following month in the same city!

Unknown said...

I registered for BWB conference yesterday. I hope that BETF-Blog readers consider doing the same. More importantly, I hope that BDPA figures out a way to market the 2008 national BDPA conference at this event. It is being held in Atlanta (hint, hint)!