Just Listen

I'll be posting more a little later today because I want to hear the keynote speakers downstairs at Youth Power this morning, but I wanted to thank the Ypulse readers and they new friends we made at last night's San Diego Teen Media Mashup. The folks who came from the conference were troopers for rallying after a very long day of presentations and networking.

This is the second Mashup in the event series this year (you can listen to the podcast of the NYC event here), and in many ways I see them as "reinventing the panel discussion" just as much as bringing the blog to life offline and connecting readers. There's something about being in a more casual atmosphere (especially after listening to people in conference rooms at the Hilton all day), that creates a whole different vibe. Premise has a very cool loft space in downtown San Diego with exposed brick and high ceilings. They had candles burning (I don't know where they hid the desks!), projected the film from Invisible Children on the wall and had colorful drawings hanging on the walls from a local artist named Kerim Yildiz — it was his first show, and I was glad to be a part of it. The panelists rocked and the conversation really flowed. One of the themes that seemed to come up a couple of times when it came to reaching young people or designing products or hotels or skate parks for them was to "just listen." It's a simple concept, but powerful when you think about creating stuff for youth vs. with young people. I rode back to the hotel on the limo bus and literally felt like we were coming home from prom - radio blaring, talking loudly and maybe just a little buzzed. I will let everyone know when the full podcast of the event is live.

I also got butterflies in my stomach during the short presentation from Invisible Children. They are creating a movement around their cause and the passion that flowed from their young speaker (Jessica Chan) was palpable. It was funny because she told me, "we don't really know much about marketing," but if you look at their site or materials or watch their video, it's very clear that they do know how to reach young people. The video showed thousands of U.S. teens camping out in solidarity with teens in Uganda in an event called the Global Night Commute - watch it here — it's so powerful. For all of the talk about "arm chair activism" this group is the real deal.

The next Ypulse Teen Media Mashup with a roundtable discussion on "The State of Teen TV" will be February 7th at CineSpace in Los Angeles from 6:30-9:30 p.m. It will be sponsored by Ypulse advertiser Samsung Fresh Films. Kelli Feigley, who is a partner there, will join the roundtable, and Dixie Feldman, the editorial director of The N, also just confirmed. I will announce more confirmations as they come in and post the full details on the events page soon.

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