Sitting in the final session of We Media, blogging before heading to the airport and home to California.  I've been on the road 2/3rds of this month, at Tools for Change, We Media, and a bunch of Knight Foundation events and meetings (regret I did not make it to FOWA, drat!)

After 48 hours of We Media, what's my takeaway?

• This year's fad is non-profit news (the PBS model), but no one knows quite what to do about the very ugly deaths so many news organizations are experiencing
• There is intense worry about how news will be present in local communities, but huge differences in perspectives about "reporting" vs "community,", crowdsourcing vs. investigation,
• Copyright vs open source (especially around photography)
• There is no new business model, we just don't know and that is really scary
• Some people want to save and retrain journalists and salvage the news businesses; others cheer the creative destruction and want to clear the rubble away, fast
• Even if everyone IS a media company, and we're all entrepreneurs, no one really knows if there is a way for anyone to make enough money to buy new shoes, let alone pay the housing costs
• People with jobs feel lucky, but seem to be viewing them as temporary
• People w/o jobs are hustling, lots of candidates for the same few things
• Everyone knows that adversity offers opportunities
• Social media is a new flavor everyone is starting to want to taste
• Conferences change as the world becomes more global and less corporate; not enough focus on international and in country perspectives at this @WeMedia; some old models of talking head presos and powerpoints seeming quite outmoded (to me, and perhaps others)
• Activists are at the table, embedded, with major media and the entrepreneurs and nonprofits (this is cool)

Dale Peskin of WeMedia laying out the story of where we're headed in this new world where reinvention is the thing we have to do.

Dale's saying that we have the power to re-view the balance sheet of our efforts--and that invention, innovation, social capital have to align with the way we do business and the return we produce for ourselves and our investors.

More on transformation: take a lesson from the early century's steel towns and all the civic richness, industry and wealth they had...all gone today. Youngstown, OH..not in its former glory...Dale says that these industries have moved on and the communities have been destroyed...

20th century capitalism must be smart and think about sustainability, suggests Dale

(Susan sez, this *human* capitalism seems like such a backlash against our current circumstances; if the economy improved, would people start buying gas guzzlers again?
YES)

The agenda for smart capitalism, sez Dale, is

• outcomes, not incomes
• connections not transactions
• people not products
• creativity, not productivity

So it's we, us, here and now....(Susan sez: I am feeling like such a crab; I agree with every single thing Dale is saying, BUT I hate Kumbaya lectures and don't like being held captive for one--and yet I agree that we've moving into a community-driven, tribal, and networked world--very different than the US as a land of individuals we were 30 years ago.

Yep, home for 4 days, the back to Miami for a Knight meeting, Future of Web Apps (psyched about attending that!) and We Media, an annual conference about convergence that seems to have amazing programing this year (and alot more diversity than ever before).

Rebecca Weeks Watson from Real Girls Media and Divine Caroline and I are doing a session on social media at WeMedia, specifically what makes for effective use of social media to attract people to programs, organizations, brands and products. (There's also a white paper I've written that will be released there, with resources, best practices and a brief.)

Whew. Oh yeah, if you are going to FOWA or are local (or not) and would like a $150 discount code for We Media, I haz codes.

I decided to be systematic this year and compile a list of conferences that interested me ahead of time, so I could better know what I was missing, where I might speak, and most importantly, how  might plan my time so I could go to the conferences that would be the most enjoyable for me (sharing knowledge, learning things, talking with people, cool travel).

Here's that list.  It's heavy on feminist and media conferences, along with the more usual Web 2.0, tech. social media and venture/start-up events. I've excluded most very local events, smaller meet-ups and so on, just to try to keep it manageable (it's not).

The key: bold means I am going; bold ital, I am speaking.

Okay, here goes:

January

•  3 EqualityCamp, San Francisco, Ca, equalitycamp.org
• 4-9, MacWorld, San Francisco, CA, www.macworldexpo.com
• 9-10, Chicks Who Click, Boulder, CO
• 30-31, She's Geeky, Mountain View, CA, shesgeeky.org/
• 31, 2009 Teens in Tech, San Francisco,CA, upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1339851/

February

• 2, Fem2pt0, George Washington University, DC, www.fem2pt0.com/
• 2-4, Always On, ON Media: NYC, alwayson.goingon.com/ecom/productview/20968
• 3-7, TED, Monterey, California, conferences.ted.com/TED2009/
• 4-6, MONEY:Tech, OReilly, NYC en.oreilly.com/money2009/public/content/home
• 2-7, Web Directions North, Denver, COl,http://north.webdirections.org/
• 5-8, Interaction 09, Vancouver, interaction09.ixda.org/
• 7,  Women's Leadership Forum 2009: Empowering for Success, Sunnyvale,Ca, opensiliconvalley.org/
• 7, BIL Conference, Long B
• 11-13, O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing ,New York, NY, www.toccon.com
• 16-17, Miami, Media Learning Seminar: Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, co-sponsored by the Council on Foundations and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
• 17-21, Public Media Conference 2009, Atlanta, GA, www.integratedmedia.org/home.cfm
• 17-18, Web content, Tampa, Fl, www.webcontentconferences.com/tampabay/
• 19-21, Northern Voice, UBC, 5883 University Blvd., Vancouver, British Columbia www.northernvoice.ca
• 22: BarCamp Miami, Miami, FL
• 22-24, Future of Web Apps, Miami, FL, events.carsonified.com/fowa/2009/miami
• 24-26, We Media Miami, Miami, FL wemedia.com/miami/ (hope to speak)

March

• 2, Social Enterprise conference, Cambridge, MA,
• www.socialenterpriseclub.com/conference/
• 1-2, DEMO, Palm Desert, CA, demo.com
• 3-6, 2008: Etech 2009: San Jose, CA, en.oreilly.com/et2009/public/content/home
• 4-7, Drupalcon, Washington, DC drupal.org/node/321768
• 9-11, Media Exchange/NAA, Las Vegas, NV, marketingconference.naa.org/
• 13-22, SXSW, Austin, TX, sxsw.com/interactive
• 18-19, 2009 Media Summit, New York, NY, www.digitalhollywood.com/MediaSummit.html
• 20- 22, IA Summit, Memphis, TN, www.iasummit.org/
• 23-24, OMMA San Francisco, CA, www.mediapost.com/events/omma/
• 20-22,, Nieman  conference in narrative journalism, Cambridge, MA, www.nieman.harvard.edu/Microsites/2009NiemanConferenceOnNarrativeJournalismTellingTrueStoriesInTurbulentTimes/Home.aspx
• 27-29,, WAM! Women, Action & the Media, Boston, MA, www.centerfornewwords.org/wam/
• 31-April1, Web 2.0 Expo, San Francisco,www.web2expo.com

April

• 16-19, The Next Web, Amsterdam, NL, 2009.thenextweb.com/
• 21-22, eMarketing Association conference, San Francisco, CA, www.emarketingassociation.com/2009/SF/index.htm
• 27-29,  Milliken Institute Global Conference, LA, www.milkeninstitute.org/events/events.taf
• 28-29, New Marketing Summit, San Francisco, CA, www.gonewmarketing.com/nms_about.aspx
• 30, Anita Borg Institute, 2009 Women of Vision Awards, San Jose, CA,\ www.anitaborg.org/initiatives/women-of-vision/

May
6, 20th Anniversary Conference of the Professional Business Women of California, San Francisco, CA, www.pbwc.org/conferences/sanfrancisco-09
12-13, Streaming Media East, NY, NY, www.streamingmedia.com/east/
19-21, Where 2.0, San Jose, California en.oreilly.com/where2009/
26-27, NetSquared, San Jose, CA, www.netsquared.org/
26-29, D Squared, Carlsbad, CA, allthingsd.com/d/register/
30, Maker Faire, San Mateo, CA, www.makerfaire.com/
June

• 1-2, YPulse Youth Marketing Mashup, mashup.ypulse.com/
• 9-11 , Supernova, San Francisco, CA, www.supernova2008.com/
• 25-27, NAWBO Women's Business Conference, Chicago, Illinois, nawbo.org/section_110.cfm
• Late June, Personal Democracy Forum, NY, NY, www.personaldemocracy.com
  

July
20-24, OSCON, San Jose, CA, en.oreilly.com/oscon2009
24-25, BlogHer, July 2009, http://blogher09.eventbrite.com/
28-30, Always On, Stanford, CA, alwayson.goingon.com/ecom/productview/24424

August
21-22, Gnomedex, Seattle, WA
friendfeed.com/e/109ea38a-646a-f16b-88a8-e223425933cd/Choosing-the-date-for-Gnomedex-2009-looks-like

September
30 - October 3, 2009, Grace Hopper conference, Tuscon, AZ, www.gracehopper.org/2009/

October
1-3, ONA/Online News Association,, San Francisco, CA
journalists.org/events/event_details.asp?id=28693
 15-17, Blogword/New Media Expo, Las Vegas, NV, www.blogworldexpo.com/
20-22, Web 2.0 Summit, San Francisco, CA, en.oreilly.com/web2009/public/sv/q/102
21-23, Pop Tech, Camden ME,, www.poptech.org/overview2009/
2009, IDEA 2009, Chicago, IL, ideaconference.org/

November
Kelsey Group, Interactive Local Media, Bay area, CA, www.kelseygroup.com/ILM2009

Another good conference list for 2009 has been assembled by my friend JD Lasica;
other sources to check are Upcoming.org (particular the Web Conference Junkies' group),
Confabb, which has 81,000 conferences in every possible discipline and industry and Gary's Guide, which is a multi-city tech meetings list.

Feel free to add conferences to note in the comments.

Kristy Sammis is going to be leaving, so BlogHer is looking for someone to manage the conference teams from the Redwood City offices. Elisa's the boss and this is a high-energy, get it done role for a kick ass team.

So Web 2.0 is over, and now it's on to the next thing. For me, I didn't engage with Web 2.0 the way I meant to--it came right on the heels of coming back from Israel, there were lots of other business decisions about work and focus happening, some talk about moving (yep, I am heading for the East Bay later this summer), and whatever other time synchs distracted me,

Having said that, we had a kick ass panel on How to Create Successful Unconferences, BarCamps, & Meetups for Almost No $$, aka why not have an all women panel to help OReilly achieve the balance they so often (sadly) fail to achieve?

Topic was how unconferences, barcamps, and other grass roots conference structures have become powerful tools to develop community; virally market standards, tools, and ideas; and launch new companies and networks.Focus of the discussionwas be how conferences that are organized--or at least, begin, on an ad hoc basis as unconferences and barcamps--can actually generate powerful momentum in pushing forward standards, networks, and community. We went i to best practices, strategies for success, marketing tips, insider knowledge, and tales from the trenches with the amazing panelists:

• Tara Hunt, co-founder of BarCamp and lead organizer for BarCampBlock
• Elisa Camahort, co-founder of Blogher and lead for its conference series:
• Kaliya Hamlin, cofounder of She's Geeky, an unconference for women who identify as geeks

Sides are on slideshare, go get em and see what you missed (though we were so much better than these slides.)