Nevada Interactive Media Summit Presentation Line-up, 2009

The final schedule is still being determined, but below is a list of of presentations by track, in no other particular order. If you have not sent us your presenter bio, please send it asap with any links you want included  to myrnatheminx @ gmail com Also, don’t forget to add the “I’m Speaking At Nevada Interactive Media Summit” badge to your blog.

• Keynote by Jesse Stay,  Village 2.0 – the Advent of Social Media and Its Transformation of Society
  In times of old, most people lived in small villages which everyone knew one another.  They knew each other’s strengths. They knew each others flaws.  They sought to help each other in need.  People worked together as a community to survive.  We had barn-raisings, town halls, community gatherings, and everyone sought to build for the good of the community.  Now our lives are filled with electronics, the internet, computers, and mass transportation, but we have lost that sense of identity and knowing one another as a society.  However, with the advent of Social Media, sites like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, and others are all once again making it possible to associate with each other as a community.  Social Media is turning the vast world we live in back into those villages that once were.  In this presentation, Jesse Stay, the “Social” Geek, will demonstrate how this is happening and what it means to you as a participant in this newly established “village”.

Cool Tools

• Guy Johnson, 50 Terrific Twitter Tools and Tips in 50 Minutes

Do you use Twitter?  If so, come see a variety of Twitter-related online tools to enhance your Twitter experience and add-value to your tweets.  Some of these you may be familiar with; some of these you will not have seen before.  This session is open to all levels of Twitter familiarity.  Let’s Tweet!

• Mike Henderson, Intro to Podcasting

I will share my experience and observations on Audio and Video Podcasting and discuss ways to create content and market to your audience. creative: what makes good podcast content, technical: video, sound, and editing, marketing and distribution: what tools to use to get your podcast seen and discussed by as many people as possible.

• Colin Loretz, Create Your Own Widgets Using Adobe Flex

Do you have an idea for a cool widget or application? Learn how Adobe Flex can be used to develop your own widgets that run on the web, desktop, and flash-enabled handheld devices. No prior experience is necessary. Download a trial version of Flex to follow along during the workshop.

• Marcel Levy, Data-driven Web Publishing without A Programmer

Databases have always been as important as other content online, but they have been hard for the average user to publish, let alone curate. Watch as an experienced software developer gives up all his sophisticated tools and publishes data using nothing more than simple, freely available web applications. We’ll show that it’s possible for an average person to clean, visualize and share data online without involving a programmer.

• Michelle Montoya, How to Engage Your Classroom Community Using Interactive Media

This session will address how students view curriculum and what can be done to include interactive media in an effort to increase students’ interest and knowledge in any given subject area. By adapting the technology that is available, teachers can learn how to enhance their skill sets and increase their knowledge in other areas. This will help you to learn how to tune them in before they tune you out.

Best Practices

• Maggie Tsai, Introduction to Social Bookmarking and Social Annotation

Social Bookmarking and Social Annotation is one of a few social media services that can really bring better productivity to every online users, for managing, processing, sharing and discovering information. The core part of the service is an online personal information management (PIM) system, where you can save and organize your online findings on the web so that you access them from any computers, and share them easily. The “social” aspect is where the connection between people and people, between people and information, and between information and information, are exploited and harnessed to improve knowledge sharing and content discovery, and to enable more meaningful social connections and intellectual exchanges. Learn how you and/or your colleagues can benefit from these tools & services.

• Charlotte-Anne Lucas, A Journalists’ Toolbox of Essential Social Media Applications and Attitudes

Online publishing and social media applications have empowered everyone with a cell phone or laptop to broadcast their work and participate in the news and information conversation. Journalists and news professionals who ignore the conversation and decline to engage are doomed to be frozen in a bed of amber obsolescence. This workshop will help you understand the interactive social media applications and the interactive attitudes that you must adopt in order to survive and to succeed.

• Ronele Klingensmith and Bob Conrad, Unconventional PR Strategies: How Social Media Has Changed Communications

Social media as an emerging technology presents new opportunities for innovative communication strategies. This workshop will demonstrate how new technologies like Twitter and Youtube are changing how online conversations are occurring, particularly for public relations purposes. Ronele and Bob will highlight specific examples of how new media can be used as a public relations communication strategy to boost client brand awareness among target audiences.

• Fracince Burge, Last Conductor Standing: Engaging an Audience in the Search

When the Reno Philharmonic undertook a search for the next music director, they looked to utilize the search as part of their core marketing strategies for the season. A search year, if done correctly, can energize the audience into more than a passive part of the concert going experience. By allowing online voting and different ways to experience the conductor candidates, the audience is connected in not only the process, but the organization as a whole.

• Mike McDowell, New Media 101: what is it, why use it?

New media can be an intimidating endeavor to take on. So, take it one step at a time. The first step is taking New Media 101. You’ll learn about the impact new media is having on communication, review some of the new media tools available to you (such as blogs, social networks, video, mobile, RSS feeds and more), as well as some crucial “do and don’t” rules so you can be successful.

Innovation and The Future

• Donica Mensing, The Future of Local News: A Community Brainstorm

Northern Nevada has plenty of complex public issues that deserve public awareness and engagement. As traditional media face growing cutbacks in the number of reporters and editors available to cover stories, we find an increasing gap in information and opportunity for public engagement in local community issues. Yet, we have a rich and informed network of new media activists, a journalism school, an alternative weekly, three TV news stations and three daily newspapers (in Reno, Sparks and Carson City). What might we do informally or formally to improve the community news environment in northern Nevada? Join the founders of Tahoe Ticker, reporters from the Reno Gazette-Journal, and local bloggers for this important panel.

• David Bobzien, Small Change: Opening the Nevada Legislative Process through Technology

Following the ascendancy of the net-savvy Obama administration, what are the prospects for shepherding state government in Nevada to a new era of openness through technology? Assemblyman David Bobzien will provide an overview of various methods of public participation being used this legislative session, as well as a report on his own attempt to lift the veil on legislating by using online tools to crowd source a bill to improve Nevada’s renewable energy incentives.

• Jamie Fields, Mobilize GenWise: New Communication for Conservation and Outdoor Recreation

Mobilize GenWise is a new campaign, led by the National Park Service, dedicated to engaging young adults in outdoor recreation and active citizenship for conservation through communication using social media strategies relevant to a tech-savvy public. This example of entrepreneurship in government is in the conceptual stages of development and is in need of critical analysis and suggestions for success from people with different professional perspectives and personal interests.

• Bob Conrad, Lessons Learned: A State Government Agency Using New Media

This presentation will outline the background, challenges and successes of Nevada’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ communications efforts using new media. The Department had little in the way of online communications prior to 2006 and has since won awards for its use of micro-sites, Youtube and other online media in order to communicate news that is of interest and sometimes controversial. Participants will take away from this session specific strategies for overcoming challenges faced when proposing the use of new media.

• Jon Pincus and Tracy Viselli, Building Engaged Communities that ACT: A Twitter Case Study

Twitter can and is being used as an effective online organizing tool. Join the presenters for a discussion on the mechanics of organizing on Twitter and how to inspire your organization into action off Twitter. The presentation is geared to any organization or group that wants to learn how to leverage Twitter for action off line including community groups, social groups, government, non-profits, advocacy groups, etc. The presenters are veterans of TwitterVoterReport and various discussions about political organizing online using Twitter.

Presenter Biographies

• David Bobzien built his first website in 1995 as a graduate assistant working for a federal agency, and has been helping businesses, government agencies and non-profits communicate on the Internet ever since. He holds an M.P.A. degree from Boise State University and a B.A. in Government & Politics from George Mason University. Formerly the Campus Webmaster for the University of Nevada, Reno, David work as the User Experience Director for Fuze. Elected to the Nevada Assembly in 2006, David is serving his second term representing District 24 (Old Northwest Reno, Northeast Reno and parts of Stead and the North Valleys.) The Las Vegas Review-Journal named him the highest-rated freshman legislator of the 2007 session and he is a winner of the Reno Gazette-Journal’s “Twenty Under Forty” award. David and his wife Lisa are proud parents of first generation Nevada natives Luca Carson and Finnegan Walker. You can find David online at Bobzien.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

• M. Francine Burge joined the Reno Philharmonic in June 2002 as Marketing Director. Mrs. Burge, whose immediate previous position was at United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra, has extensive experience in creative marketing, brand development and media. Other experience includes stints at the Reno Gazette-Journal, KOLO-TV, and WFYI-PBS, WISH-CBS and WFBQ/WNDE Radio in Indianapolis. In the eight years of working with the Phil, their committees and board, along with some very creative people in the Reno advertising community, subscription revenue has increased over 92%, contrary to the downward trends in the performing arts industry. The average of earned income to contributed income increased from 40% to 48%. The national average for orchestras is 34%. Since she is presenting this weekend, she is not working on her personal website, not live yet, masterdabbler.com, a home project blog and resource guide. Like most home projects, it’s a slow never ending process

• Bob Conrad is the communications officer for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. He was previously a director of marketing communications at the University of Nevada, Reno. Conrad is a member of the Public Relations Society of America, the National Association of Science Writers and the Association for Communications Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences. He holds a B.A. and M.A. From the University of Nevada, Reno and is accredited in public relations (APR). He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership.

• Jamie Fields works for the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance Program and coordinates the Mobile GenWise program.  Mobile GenWise is dedicated to engaging young adults in outdoor recreation and active citizenship for conservation through communication using social media strategies relevant to a tech-savvy public.  Fields is also a rock climbing instructor and an NEPA writer for the Great Basin Institute.

• Mike Henderson have been audio and video podcasting for over a year. I have experience shooting, lighting, directing, editing, and copywriting for podcasts. I produce the Twelve Horses Podcast, i am indisposed , Tallcan TV, Feral Snow and is the  founder of Podlatch Media.  Henderson also produces, directs, shoots and/or copywrites for the Nevada Museum of Art Podcast, the Ski Alpine Podcast and the Ski Homewood Podcast.

• Guy Johnson worked as an IT Consultant for 16 years in Chicago prior to relocating his family to Reno three years ago. Guy holds a B.S. in Computer Science, as well as an M.B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently working as a full-time real estate agent for Chase International, Guy is also one of the contributors writing for Reno’s #1 Real Estate Blog, the RenoRealtyBlog. Guy frequently presents on interactive media topics ranging from blogging to creating and implementing online video. Guy is member of more social networks (both online and off) than he can recall, but sees the most potential in Twitter. If you tweet, you can follow guy on Twitter @GuyJohnson.

• Ronele Klingensmith started RKPR Inc. 6 years ago. She had 16 years of public relations experience, has won numerous awards, and has been a member of PRSA since 1994.  Klingensmith judged the national PRSA Silver Avil Awards in 2007 and 2008 in New York City.

• Marcel Levy has been creating content-rich web sites and applications for almost 15 years, starting shortly after being rejected for a job maintaining a Gopher site. That worked out well. After gathering his weight in marketing material at the first JavaOne conference he used it as inspiration to help write the SCHWA World Operations Manual (Chronicle Books, 1997). He lives with an amazing writer/blogger/superhero and four wildly intelligent kids in Sparks, Nev. He works as a bioinformatics specialist (don’t ask, please) and data plumber at the Center for Bioinformatics at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has an M.S. in Computer Science, but can still makedecent small talk at parties.

• Colin Loretz is a designer, developer, entrepreneur, and project manager.  His weapons of choice include a MacBook, Ruby on Rails, PHP, Wordpress, Adobe Flex and the Adobe Creative Suite. He will be graduating in May from the University of Nevada, Reno with a degree in Marketing where he is also the “Rich Internet Application Student Representative” for Adobe. In addition to school, Colin is also the Salesforce.com developer and project manager at Twelve Horse and the cofounder of both Reno Collective and Ignite Reno.

• Charlotte-Anne Lucas wrote her first news story on a manual typewriter, and most recently taught online journalism, Web publishing and design, digital storytelling and multi-platform reporting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her journalism has won won dozens of awards, including being selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She was a reporter and editor for newspapers in Philadelphia, Dallas, Phoenix, San Francisco, Austin and San Antonio, and her freelance writing has appeared everywhere from the New York Times to the Auckland (New Zealand) Herald. Her groundbreaking 1994 investigation into the questionable business background of George W. Bush was cited by Columbia Journalism Review and by Bush biographers. Charlotte-Anne went to the Web in 1999 to be Managing Editor of TheStreet.com, supervising the creation of online-only, financial news articles, blogs and multimedia. As Content Director of MySanAntonio.com, she managed the site’s unique newspaper/TV partnership, combining text, photos, video and audio for Web delivery. Under her leadership, MySanAntonio.com was ranked among the best news Websites in the country. On her watch, both TheStreet.com and MySanAntonio.com became profitable, while maintaining the highest journalistic values.

• Mike McDowell is a native of Reno, Nevada, a graduate of the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, and works for KPS3 Marketing (an integrated marketing communications agency). He’s worked with clients in industries ranging from gaming, to healthcare, to banking, to real estate, to government and nonprofits. McDowell oversees and manages integrated marketing communications for my clients – keeping them on brand, on budget and on strategy.  As the Director of New Media, McDowell assist KPS3’s clients with the latest new media strategies including e-mail marketing, search engine marketing, mobile marketing, video, Podcasting, blogging, social networks, consumer generated media, viral marketing and more.

• Donica Mensing is an associate professor of journalism at the Reynolds School of Journalism. She teaches online journalism, ethics and basic reporting, and conducts research on the changing purpose and function of journalism. She is director of the school’s graduate program in interactive environmental journalism and helps manage the school’s Web site, Ning site and several class blogs.

• Michelle Montoya has dual careers and interest in both education and technology. She teaches English at Truckee Meadows Community College where she also serves as the Writing Center Coordinator. When not at the college, she works as a freelance copywriter and as an internet marketing consultant, specializing in social media marketing, search engine marketing, and business blogging. In the classroom, she combines her love for education and technology to interact with her subject matter and her students on multiple levels. As a self-proclaimed “word nerd,” she is lucky enough to get to do what she loves every day and actually get paid for it. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis in English writing and a Master of Arts degree with an emphasis in Organizational Management.

• Jon Pincus is a strategist, writer, and activist living in the Seattle area, currently working on Tales from the Net (a book on social networks co-authored with Deborah Pierce and his brother Greg). As well as being an organizer for Get FISA Right, he’s vice-chair for online visibility for the 2009 ACM Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference. He blogs about these and other topics at Liminal States and elsewhere.

• Andrew Pridgen is co-founder and CEO of Ticker Media LLC, parent company of tahoeticker.com. After graduating University of Oregon in ‘97, Pridgen cut his teeth in the bad lands of Gilroy, Calif. (think garlic ice cream, garlic beer, garlic fries) as an intern reporter — and was quickly shown the door (too many first-person stories). …Picked up by the Contra Costa Times, not because he could write/had good clips, b/c they lost about 200 reporters between May ‘98 and June ‘99 to the dot.com boom …sell-outs. Learned to write — kinda. Left after two years for literal greener pastures in West Marin County to become news editor at the legendary Point Reyes Light under the watchful eye and constant scorn of Pulitzer Prize-winner/publisher David Mitchell. Three years, and too many 4 a.m. deadline nights (mornings?) to count later and Pridgen was a journalist — finally. Then, just to ebb progress, he felt the need to take the sell-out gig at a travel trade publication (HUGE mistake). Ridiculous — writing about advertisers (blech). In six months, he felt soul-less, lost and morose …till he unceremoniously was axed. Moved to Tahoe to become news editor of the Bonanza in Incline and then down to Carson as a features writer/weekend editor for The Appeal. Found a couple business partners in October ‘07 and began the design/demo research on tahoeticker, which went live in the spring of ‘08. Ticker Media LLC will expand to Marin and Contra Costa counties in the spring of ‘09.
  

• Jesse Stay, the self-proclaimed “Social” Geek, is a well-reputed speaker, author, blogger, and entrepreneur, who writes and consults on the topics of social media and new media. Jesse wrote two books, his first book, “I’m on Facebook–Now What???“, discusses the possibilities of improving your career, family, business, and life through Facebook.  His unique technology background has enabled him to help others understand the new mesh of technology, marketing, PR, and customer service, which social media has come to be.  Through his expertise, Jesse has consulted for top 10 Facebook applications, large corporations, social media applications with hundreds of thousands of users, and has helped many people become successful through their social media efforts to merge technology with marketing.  Jesse is currently CEO, Founder, and Chief Architect of another successful social media venture called SocialToo, which makes it easier to manage and stay in touch with the people you or your business follow on the social networks you belong to.  Jesse also writes regularly for the popular tech blog, LouisGray, along with his own blog, StayNAlive, and occasionally on the top two Facebook blogs, InsideFacebook and AllFacebook.  You can find him there, or on Twitter under his screen name, @Jesse.

• Maggie Tsai co-founded Diigo.com, headquartered in Reno, NV. Diigo marries an innovative online research tool with a knowledge-sharing community and transforms the web into a writable, interactive & participatory media. Diigo arose out of personal needs to read and digest large amount of information online and the need to share thoughts and interact on those information. Diigo has received rave reviews from leading IT publications, and many awards, including 2nd Open Web Awards – Best Social Bookmarking category, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology’s “Tech Start-up of the Year” Award, and Technology Innovation Foundation’s “Technology Innovator of the Year” Award. Maggie is also a managing partner at Adaptive Capital Management, LLC, an investment management company. She is a member of Sierra Angels and has been active as an angel investor in a number of high-tech startups in US and China. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

• Tracy Viselli is an online media strategist, blogger, political activist, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Nevada Interactive Media and Summit. As Myrna the Minx, Viselli has been raising hell for years at her political placeblog Reno and Its Discontents, but her online media exploits extend far beyond Reno, Nevada. Viselli is a contributor to The Political Voices Of Women and blogs about women’s rights at Care2.org.  She was a part of the TwitterVoteReport team, and continues to explore the possibilities for activism on Twitter as well as experiment with government transparency and crowdsourcing in projects soon to be announced.  Viselli is featured weekly in the National Journal’s Bloggers Poll and her online work has been mentioned by a variety of national and international media outlets including; the UK TimesOnline, Politico, Huffington Post, National Journal, Hotline, PBS’ Media Shift, the Reno Gazette-Journal and the Reno News & Review. She is also a member of Women In Politics and Technology (WIPT) and WomenWhoTech. You can find Viselli on LinkedIn, Facebook, FriendFeed, and  Twitter @myrnatheminx .