True Spin Conference: A Preview

Tomorrow and Friday and I’ll be in Denver, Colorado for the 2010 True Spin Conference a national conference on communications for progressives. The conference brings together some of America’s best progressive PR practitioners for two days of panels, practical workshops, networking and fun. It’s a unique opportunity for progressive advocacy groups from around the country to exchange ideas and learn new and creative public relations tactics.

Although this is my first year attending the conference it was first held back in 2006. Currently, the conference is held every two years, with the most recent conference being held in 2008, where it brought together over 225 people. For a list of past registrants and speakers, as well as audio recordings of workshops and panels from 2006 and 2008 you can check them out here.

Some great speakers for this year’s conference include Karl Frisch, of Media Matters for America, Martin Kearns of Green Media Toolshed, Rashad Robinson of GLAAD, and David Sirota, author of Hostile Takeover. To check out all the speakers and their bios, click here. You can also find a partial list of participants by going to the True Spin Conference home page. It’s interesting to note the wide range of people that will be attending, from Foundations to non-profit executives, to public relations professionals and media executives. I think this speaks to the importance of having targeted progressive communications strategies for the broad range of issues that are represented here at the conference, from the environment to human rights.

Not planning on making the trip to Denver but interested in checking out the full list of workshops and schedules? Click here. Tomorrow’s program includes an introduction and keynote speech by Holly Minch, titled “Common Challenges, Uncommon Solutions”, followed by a series of interesting panels including “The Power of Advocacy Networks”, “Evaluating Communications in the Nonprofit World” and “Crisis Communications: How to Respond to Unwanted Media Attention”, just to name a few. Later on in the week, I’ll be interested in attending the panel on “Mobile Advocacy/Engagement”, and “Real-Life Success with Twitter.” It’s great to see that this conference is taking such an active interest in learning how mobile strategies and new Web 2.0 technologies can aid in progressive causes. I really do think that this is the way of the future. Both as someone who works for a foundation, and as graduate student in media and communication, I’ll be very interested in learning how organizations are able to take advantage of the tools that are available to them in order to foster their advocacy work.

If you want to follow the conference on online via Twitter, you can find it at @TrueSpinner. If you’re here in Denver and tweeting from the event, be sure to use the hashtag #truespin. And of course, a very special thanks to Effect Communications, a Denver based communication firm that is sponsoring the two-day event. Also, be sure to sign up for the free Progressive PR newsletter by visiting www.truespinconference.com/jobs. I’m looking forward to the next few days!