I'm speaking at the Blogging While Brown Conference

I have been selected as a panelist/presenter at the 3rd Annual Blogging While Brown Conference. I attended this same conference last year and was initially unsure of what I might gain from the conference, I was pleasantly surprised and was very glad I had attended.  I learned some new things about the technology and direction of social media among communities of color.  But more importantly, I met some amazing people, some amazingly supportive people.  I was feeling as if the Black Blog-o-sphere seemed dominated by pop culture and political commentary, and that blogs about science/nature/education written by people of color seemed overlooked.

Social media (and the real life interactions that come about from it) are just one of many ways to engage people in ideas and actions.  The people in that room helped me realize that we could work together, leveraging our strengths (and blog audiences) and helped me achieve some very important goals related to growing my blog. It was at this same time I entered the Blog Your Way to Antarctica Contest.  Before I was out fo the Chicago city limits, my newly minted @BWBConference friends were the very first to jump on bandwagon.  Thanks to their support (and the support of many, many, more) I was in 8th place (out of nearly 800 contestants)!

I will be participating in the panel: "Beyond Gossip, Hip Hop, Hair, and Politics: Bloggers and Change Agents and Educators".  Also on the panel are Luvvie of Awesomely Luvvie and Latoya Peterson of Racialicious.com.  We'll each share tips with other bloggers about technology strategies we've employed to use our blogs for initiating major initiatives and awareness campaigns over important issues often not introduced in more popular blogs.

Check out the official Speaker Announcement video on YouTube.

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I will be representing for the science/nature/education/outdoor recreation blogs out there! I will discuss using online tools to engage under-represented audiences in STEM and how to enhance scientific literacy and research participation via Citizen Science Projects, Science fairs, etc. Plus, I'm excited to get STEM on the forefront. Blogs about basic yet equally important issues like education and specific to my interests - science education - always seem to be overlooked, especially among blogs authored by people of color. Even when political issues required some better understanding of science, the science is often overlooked in favor of a sensationalized story.  I hope to change that.

My goals as a presenter are three-fold:
1) to initiate a dialogue about STEM education in formal and informal settings with other bloggers;
2) encourage communities of color to become more engaged in science/nature activities (online and in real life); and
3) share my strategies of how I managed to become one of the more popular African-American science/nature bloggers on the web.

Registration is open to all.  I hope some of you will come out.  The line-up of speakers is great.  Plus, they are offering a free Beginner's Bloggers Bootcamp on June 18th.   More information about the conference (including the bios of all of the speakers) can be found at the conference website.

Finally, if you're interested in assisting my efforts to attend the conference, then feel free to drop me a line and we can discuss sponsorship options. In the meantime, I appreciate your support of my blog and professional endeavors.

Many thanks to each of you!
DNLee
demystifying nature, letting everyone experience