Pop!Tech 2009 Preview

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-10-21 11:44:00 UTC
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I leave Mexico today en route to Camden, Maine for another event that promises to be wonderful. Pop!Tech is a conference and an action network that helps social innovators accelerate their work. This will be my first year in attendance, and as I get ready to hop onto the four flights that will take me there, there are a few thing I'm most excited about.

First, I'm thrilled to meet all of the Social Innovation Fellows. The Pop!Tech innovation is a few year old program that brings together incredible world changers for a pre-conference training designed to jumpstart their work. I know fellows like FrontlineSMS:Medic's Josh Nesbit, but can't wait to meet the rest of them.

Second, I'm incredibly excited by the variety of brilliant speakers and performers. The list reads like a who's who of people you didn't know you needed to know about, but you do. It's hard to pinpoint just a few that I'm most excited about, but John Fetterman, the renegade Pennsylvania mayor trying to bring back his town by attracting an entirely new generation of artists and entrepreneurs has gotta be high on the list.

Third, I'm excited to see the staff in action. I've had the chance to hang out a bit with the Pop!Tech team at conferences and in their New York office (not to mention via Twitter), and they've always struck me as an incredibly motivated, kind group. Conferences tend to take on the characteristics of their staff, which only bodes well.

Finally, I'm excited for the setting. Camden, Maine, just about an hour and a half north of where I group up, is an unbelievably beautiful place. What's more, there are few better places to think about "America Reimagined" - this year's conference theme - than Maine. Maine is a place that combines a deep, rich tradition of libertarian independence with a deep live-and-let-live progressiveness. It is self-reliant in it's own imagination, yet as more and more young people leave for lack of jobs, it has been forced to get creative to attract and retain youth. And in just a couple short weeks, Maine voters may be the first group in the nation to ratify a state legislature's ruling in favor of allowing same-sex marriage.

As you'd expect, I'll be blogging throughout the event. Stay tuned.

(Photo: Tony the Misfit)

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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