1. The keynotes: MTV's Ian Rowe on how they are rocking the vote 2.0 style, Antti Ohrling, Co-Founder of Blyk, the first free mobile service in the world for youth 16-24, award-winning director Michael Franzini presenting photos and video of over "100 Young Americans" and Damon Whiteside, SVP of marketing at Walt Disney Records (just confirmed!)
2. The conversations: I'll be interviewing the creators of the popular and hilarious Midwest Teen Sex Show about using humor to reach teens while Mortified founder Dave Nadelberg will be interviewing a special guest (tba) about how teens have changed and what essentially remains the same throughout time (mortifying angst!)
3. The panels: So many good ones: Girls are the new geeks, Totally wired hip hop, How teen sites can prevent cyberbullying, Totally wired teen superstars, mobile, social networking, widgets and apps, user generated content....see the full agenda for panels and panelists here. (um, MC Hammer, founder of DanceJam.com, is a panelist!)
4. The attendees: Last year we had over 350 on site -- people kept telling me how impressed they were...with each other! Ypulse readers are a special breed - smart, passionate about youth and very connected. I continue to hear about friendships formed and business partnerships forged.
5. Lunch: I'm not talking chow, but our "user generated" lunchtime roundtables suggested and moderated by our attendees. We make our lunch long enough for you all to eat and talk shop.
7. Exclusive screening: "American Teen" followed by a panel featuring three of the teens from the film. Check out their Facebook page here.
8. Case studies: You'll hear best practices throughout panels and from our sponsors: Fuse, Alcatel Lucent, Premise, Mr. Youth and MyYearbook. There are only two sponsored case study slots left! Email us for more info...
9. Research: Our research sponsor C&R Research will be sharing their latest findings from their TeensEyes panel of teens and tweens.
10. Price: Compared to other youth marketing conferences, Ypulse is a steal. If you register before our early adopter deadline May 30, it's even cheaper. And we are one of the only marketing conferences offering an affordable non-profit rate. Don't wait -- register now and I'll see you in July!
Longtime Ypulse readers know I am a big advocate of comprehensive sex education...and using humor to reach teens. The Midwest Teen Sex Show does both extremely well. I had the pleasure of meeting Nikol Hasler at a conference we were both speaking at in San Francisco and learned that she, too, shares my passion for karaoke. I knew I had to have them at the Ypulse 2008 National Mashup this July and lucky for me and our attendees, she and her producing partner Guy Clark have said yes. I'll be interviewing them on stage, but I wanted to give Ypulse readers a hint of what you'll see and yet another reason (as if you need one, to register today!).
Ypulse: What inspired you to create the Midwest Teen Sex Show?
Guy Clark: My favorite podcasts are educational and having grown up in the Midwest, I knew that sex education was lacking a voice that connected with teens. On the practical side: As a struggling filmmaker, I was keeping a close eye on the world of web video as a potential venue for my work. When podcasting hit, I saw an opportunity to create an ongoing show that would drive a consistent audience.
Mixing humor, sex, and a bit of real world information was exactly the kind of show I wanted to see online, and fortunately Nikol, Britney, and our viewers agreed.
YP: What is the most asked question you get from your viewer email?
Nikol Hasler: Our most frequently asked question in emails is "Am I normal?" It is a resounding theme. The ideas surrounding vary from body image, fantasies, desire or lack of desire for sex, all the way to fear of talking to their parents. The important thing to note is that all of them seem to be looking less for someone to tell them the answer, and more for someone to let them know there is someone they can tell this stuff to who isn't going to judge.
YP: What reaction to the Midwest Teen Sex Show surprised you the most?
NH: Some people have noted a rash.
GC: The massive popularity of the show came as an initial shock. It's surprising just how much teens and adults alike were craving for sex information that was handled in a more honest and entertaining way than what was out there already.
YP: What has been your biggest challenge in creating the videos/website so far?
GC: Time and zero funding. The show was started in a basement with a light from Ikea. While we're getting numbers and demographics that would make any marketer jealous, we're still working on securing advertisers/funders to help us produce the show on a more full-time basis.
YP: What can Ypulse Mashup attendees expect to hear (and see) in July? Give us a sneak preview...
NH: I can tell you what they won't be seeing! I don't twirl baton very well, so there will be none of that. I will work on my cartwheels so I can possibly do a few of those if things get tense.
GC: What we will be sharing with them is two fold. We want to express the ease of putting your ideas into a working format that is relevant and useful in talking to teens. Very often parents and educators will have a longer discussion with their peers about how to reach their Todd and Judy than they spend actually talking to the kids about the important ideas they need to express.
We also hope to speak about the importance of creating high end materials. Teens can tell just as easily as anyone if something feels slapped together. If the message is important, it is worth putting time into.
About Guy & Nikol:
Director Guy Clark (aka Todd) is the creator of Midwest Teen Sex Show. In an effort to showcase his filmmaking talents and provide a fresh take on teen sexuality, Guy began shooting MTSS with high school friend Nikol Hasler. Since its debut, MTSS has received millions of views and has been featured in national press. When he's not busy editing episodes or duct taping Britney's nipples, Guy produces new media content for online and broadcast venues. His commercial work and consulting services can be found at H-PEP.com. He also loves cheese.
Nikol Hasler is an expert of absolutely nothing with an opinion on just about everything. In the summer of 2007 she began writing for and hosting the video podcast Midwest Teen Sex Show. As a working mother of three, there is no such thing as free time. If she did, she would use that time to paint, write, and cook. Much of her professional focus is in encouraging people to talk about their own ideas concerning sex. She is grateful to have this opportunity to combine her warped sense of humor with her frank perspective on her own life experiences.
The invites are all out and we have confirmations coming in daily for the Ypulse 2008 National Mashup July 14-15 in San Francisco. Here's the list of who's speaking so far:
Juliette Brindak, Chair & Co-Founder Miss O & Friends
Carl Brown, California Citizen Journalist, MTV Street Team '08
Karl Carter, Co-CEO, Inner City Enterprises
Dorcas Casey, VP of Project Strategy & Development of FWP (Zwinky)
Catherine Cook, Co-Founder, MyYearbook
John Davison, Co-Founder, Whattheyplay.com
Aria Finger, CMO, Do Something Michael Franzini, Emmy-award winning director, photographer, and youth culture expert
Shahi Ghanem, President & CEO, Brickfish
Nikol Hasler and Guy Clark, creators of The Midwest Teen Sex Show
Teemu Huuhtanen, President, North America, Sulake Inc. (Habbo)
Lynne, Johnson, Senior Editor, Fastcompany.com
Jared Kim, Founder, WeGame
Jacqueline Lane, Vice President, TeensEyes Division, C&R Research
Charlene Li, Vice President & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
Courtney Macavinta, Founder, Respect Rx Larry Magid, Technology Journalist and Internet Safety Advocate
Allison Mooney, Director of Trends & Research, Fleishman-Hillard
Dave Nadelberg, Creator, Mortified
Antti Öhrling, Co-Founder, Blyk Stefanie Olsen, Technology Journalist, CNET
Tony P., Community Evangelist, Slide
John Poisson, CEO, Tiny Pictures
Ashley Qualls, CEO, Whateverlife
Holly Rotman, Senior Web Editor of eCRUSH/eSPIN; voice of the Advice Girl
Ian Rowe, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, MTV
Michael Sharon, Co-Founder, Socialight
Craig Sherman, CEO, Gaia Online
Brett Smith, Co-Founder and Partner, Fuse Marketing
Scott Tilton, CEO, Loop'd Network
Saskia Wilson-Brown, Director Viewer Created Content (VC2), Current TV
Michael Wilson, CEO, There.com
You can see where they are all fitting into the agenda here. But more importantly, you can reserve your spot and save money with our "early adopter" discount here.
We've been busy bees behind the scenes here at Ypulse working on our second annual Ypulse National Mashup happening July 14-15 here in San Francisco. On the sponsor front, in addition to our generous anchor sponsor Fuse, we have added C&R Research as our exclusive research sponsor as well as Premise, who will joining Alcatel Lucent's Worldwide Teen Lab as a sponsor. We have four sponsor case study/speaking slots available as well as exhibitor space and other options. Contact Phil for more information.
On the programming front, in addition to our confirmed keynotes (we'll be announcing one more soon):
Michael Franzini, Emmy-award winning director, photographer, and youth culture expert
Antti Öhrling, Co-Founder, Blyk
Ian Rowe, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, MTV
We have finalized the following panel programming:
- What's Next in The Mobile Youth Space?
- Leveraging User Generated Content to Reach Youth
- Brand Engagement in Virtual Worlds for Youth
- Killer Apps: Which Widgets and Applications Are Hits With Younger Users?
- How to Successfully Reach Youth on Social Networks
- The Tween Multi-Platform Music Machine
- Are Girls The New Geeks?
- Totally Wired Hip Hop: Reaching Urban Youth
- Preventing Cyberbullying in Online Communities for Youth
- Meet the Totally Wired Superstars
And don't forget the pre-conferences:
Ypulse Books Publishing Mashup
Casual Gaming For Tweens & Teens
Understanding Wired Teens: An Interactive Workshop
Building A Youth Movement
We will post the full agenda for the main event next week (pre-conference sessions will follow). More to come...Register now!
If any of you are on our email list, we had a typo on the date of this year's conference -- it's not June, it's July 14th and 15th. You can check out the press release online here.
Also, after yesterday's post, Aria Finger, the dynamic CMO of Do Something, offered to host/moderate our new fourth pre-conference: "Building A Youth Movement." This will replace the "Case Study Slam." Alli Decker, our Ypulse Books editor, will host/moderate our "Ypulse Books Publishing Mashup" pre-conference. And, John Davison, of WhatTheyPlay, will host/moderate the "Casual Gaming For Tweens & Teens" pre-conference. If you have speaker suggestions for either of these four morning sessions, please send them to me.
I'm getting lots of speaker requests right now so please accept my apology in advance if I can't get back to everyone. We will be posting our full agenda next week and will post pre-conference agendas and additional speakers as we confirm them. Don't wait to register for this year's event -- it's going to be packed, and you don't want to miss the pricing discounts.
We are in full on planning mode for our second annual 2008 Ypulse National Mashup July 14-15 in San Francisco this summer. Fuse has signed on as our anchor sponsor for this year and next year's event! Last year we had over 350 attendees on site and we hope to grow that number a lot this time around. In addition to the best in-person networking you will find at any "youth marketing" event as well as extremely affordable prices that include a realistic non-profit rate, you get:
- Four pre-conference options
- Four keynotes
- Two keynote interviews
- Five topical panels
- Four breakout practical panels (think: how they did it and how you can, too)
- Two main session sponsored case studies + four breakout sponsored case case studies
All focused on what's NEW in this space and what's NEXT.
Right now, our pre-conference sessions are:
- Ypulse Books publishing pre-conference
- Casual games for tweens and teens
- Interactive workshop on reaching teens (with teens!)
- Case Study Slam
Question: We actually have a lot of case studies in the main event so I'm considering replacing the Case Study Slam with a different pre-conference -- would potential Ypulse attendees from the social marketing/non-profit space be interested in a pre-conference on "Building a youth movement"? If so, is there a reader who would like to help organize, suggest speakers for this, chair/moderate? Please get in touch. If you really want even more case studies, you can tell me that, too. That session would consist of six 20-minute back-to-back case studies from a variety of brands.
I'm really excited to announce three of our four keynote speakers:
Michael Franzini, Emmy-award winning director, photographer, youth culture expert - Mike is the author of 100 Young Americans, and will be our opening keynote. His talk will include photographs and video (and most importantly, insight gained) from the 100 Young Americans project.
Antti Öhrling, co-founder, Blyk. Everyone's buzzing about the latest Wired cover story on "Free." Guess what? Blyk is doing this in the mobile space abroad with the first of its kind ad supported mobile network for 16-24 year olds.
Ian Rowe, SVP, Public Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, MTV. It's "Choose or Lose" time for the country and for MTV. Ian will share how MTV is leveraging all kinds of technology in this year's election coverage as well as dispel some myths about young voters.
The ONLY sponsored speaking slots are the six case studies and they are already going fast (Alcatel Lucent's Worldwide Teen Lab has come on board and there are a bunch more in the works). All other speaking is editorially chosen by me. We have lots of exhibitor space, break sponsorships and more. Contact Phil if you're interested.
We are deep in planning mode for our next big event, The Ypulse 2008 National Mashup, happening Jult 14-15 once again at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. Last July over 350 youth media and marketing professionals attended the first major Ypulse conference, which featured two pre-conferences. This year we're planning four pre-conferences including another interactive workshop on teens and technology, a Ypulse Books & Publishing Mashup (that will focus on books and mags), a Casual Games Mashup, and a TV/Movies Mashup. And that's all happening the morning of July 14th before the main event even starts! We will again feature a Youth Media Showcase, where we give free exhibitor space to four non-profit youth media organizations as well as an award to an individual or group doing amazing stuff with technology to reach teens. We'll be launching the new conference site soon, so stay tuned...
For this year's advisory board, everyone has participated in at least one Ypulse Mashup as an attendee, speaker or an adviser. We will be adding an additional adviser from our founding sponsor TBA. If you have a speaker suggestion or pitch, please read this post first. Then feel free to email me. If you are interested in sponsoring or exhibiting, please get in touch with Phil -- he's our sponsorship go-to guy.
Bob has been very active in the interactive marketing field for the past four years, first working on P&G's homemadesimple.com program, then moving to take North America and now global leadership for beinggirl.com. While at homemadesimple, he was part of the team that more than doubled subscribers and set the stage for the homemadesimple TV show. Since taking over beinggirl.com, traffic has more than tripled and expanded to include more P&G beauty brands, becoming a fixture in teen marketing at P&G.
danah boyd, Fellow, Annenberg Center for Communications, University of Southern California
danah boyd is a doctoral candidate in the School of Information at the University of California-Berkeley and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. Her dissertation focuses on how American youth engage in networked publics like MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Xanga, etc. This work is funded by the MacArthur Foundation as part of a broader grant on digital youth and informal learning. Prior to Berkeley, danah received a bachelor's degree in computer science from Brown University and a master's degree in sociable media from MIT Media Lab. She has worked as an ethnographer and social media researcher for various corporations, including Intel, Tribe.net, Google, and Yahoo! She also created and managed a large online community for V-Day, a non-profit organization working to end violence against women and girls worldwide.
Karl helped launch Inner City Enterprises, Inc., a strategic communications and entertainment holding company, to develop and launch creative programs that engage urban youth audiences worldwide. It has four integrated business segments: GTM...It Means A Lot (a youth marketing and promotions agency), Soul Underground (a live, positive entertainment platform for showcasing the best in underground urban talent), Wheat Bread Clothing (a progressive urban streetwear apparel company, and Change the Game (a non-profit community outreach initiative). Karl is responsible for designing innovative media & new business pitches targeting the youth subculture market. Karl received his bachelor's degree in Business Administration from George Washington University, specializing in Electronic Media Marketing.
Dixie Feldman, Senior Editorial Director of The N, MTV Networks
"Dixie" Feldman is Senior Editorial Director for The N, MTV Networks' digital media brand totally for and about teens, exploring creative, effective ways to engage The N's millions of viewers. Prior to The N, "Dixie" was Editorial Director for Oxygen.com, as well as producer for "Oprah Goes Online" and an on-air personality for the network. Before Oxygen, she crisscrossed the country as National Project Director for public television's multi-million dollar professional development initiative to help teachers use media effectively. In addition to her relentless Web "evangelizing," Dixie wrote for a variety of media, including AMC, BUST , the New York Post, and the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Currently doling out advice in a column for WE, Dixie can be also be found working on her upcoming book, DAMES; training for marathons; and coping with a menagerie including 2 dogs and 5 (!) parrots.
Steve is the founder and Executive Director of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). In 1994, Steve founded NSCS to recognize students who had done well academically during their first years in college and to provide members with an opportunity to be honored and involved in an organization devoted to scholarship, integrity and service. NSCS currently has more than 225 chapters in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The membership consists of 160,000 current undergraduate students and 400,000 alumni lifetime members. Steve was recently elected president of the Association of College Honor Societies which is the only certifying organization for collegiate honor societies.
In her role as Director of Trends & Research at NGT (Next Great Thing), the insights arm of Fleishman-Hillard's Youth and Mobile Marketing practice, Allison tracks youth-driven wireless trends and innovations that are changing the communications industry around the world. Allison is also a regular contributor to the trends blog PSFK.com and has written for Radar, Glamour, Stereotype among other publications. Before joining Fleishman-Hillard, she worked at Details Magazine as Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief and staff writer, and at Random House in the Doubleday Broadway Marketing department. Allison graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University with majors in English and Psychology and a minor in French, then attended the Columbia Publishing Course at the University's School of Journalism.
Just wanted to give readers an update on what's coming up @ Ypulse and what's happening behind the scenes.
Ypulse In Late Feb./March
On February 26th, I'll be joining a panel at the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley to talk about: Who Do You Trust? Trends in trust and influence for the next generation of business leaders.
I will be moderating a keynote panel on tech trends at the Youth Marketing Mega Event in Newport Beach on March 4th. If you were planning on attending, but haven't registered yet, use this code: SPKRM2009AG for 15 percent off. That said, if you have to choose between the Mega Event and the upcoming 2008 Ypulse Mashup July 14-15 for budgetary reasons, well....enough said.
After Newport we're off to Austin for SXSW Interactive. I'll be moderating the panel: What Teens Want Online & On Their Phones Saturday, March 8th (I think at 11) and a Core Conversation on tweens/teens and gaming with John Davison on Sunday at 5 p.m. Then on Monday night, we have our Ypulse SXSW All Ages Mixer at Cafe Mundi beginning at 7 p.m. featuring spoken word from The Cypher Project and music from Blues Mafia. If you're on Facebook, say hi on our event page.
Ypulse Behind The Scenes
Ypulse Books
We're hoping to launch Alli's Ypulse Books coverage as a separate channel and newsletter on Ypulse in the near future (you would still have the option of still receiving both sets of posts, Ypulse and Ypulse Books). Please let Alli know what you think of the coverage and what you would like to see more of. We will also be producing a Publishing/Print pre-conference as part of this year's 2008 Ypulse Mashup event in July. We're also looking for publishers or TV/film studios/networks interested in advertising/sponsoring Ypulse Books. If you've got titles or TV or film adaptions of books by/for/about Gen Y, promote them on Ypulse Books. Just email Phil for more info.
Ypulse Research
We are getting very close to launching the Ypulse Research Channel. Our goal is to aggregate and resell market research about youth (tweens, teens, Gen Y/Millennials) from participating partners. If you are a research house and put out reports or white papers about this demographic, email Charles for more info on how you can get involved pre-launch.
Ypulse 2008 Mashup event planning
We're working on the program and speaker selection now. We have the dates and the venue -- July 14 and 15 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. For info on sponsoring, email Phil. To suggest speakers, email me.
I'm starting to think about speakers for the big 2008 Ypulse Mashup in San Francisco July 14th - 15th at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco and need your input. We're definitely going to repeat the Totally Wired Teen Superstar panel with a new crop of a teen tech entrepreneurs. If you know of a teen who has taken a blog, vlog, podcast or other type of technology oriented business from hobby to company or media brand, please let me know.
Last year, one of our pre-conferences focused on music -- what vertical area would you like to see this year? Print/publishing? Mobile? Fashion?
Our big keynoters in 2007 were danah boyd and Henry Jenkins and former Jones Soda CEO Peter van Stolk. Who do you think we should ask to keynote this year?
We will also be bringing back our Bay Area Youth Media Showcase, offering free table top exhibit space to local non-profit youth media organizations -- please get in touch if you're interested.
Ypulse Mashup speakers tend to be from the brand side vs. the agency side - read why here.
All to say, if you want to suggest a speaker or topic idea, email or post a comment. Relive the magic on the 2007 site here. Plus you can watch video from last year's event here.
