Rising Tide X - Request for Proposals

CONTACT: Rising Tide Programming Committee at programming@risingtidenola.com
WHO: Rising Tide NOLA
WHAT: Rising Tide X: Conference on Civic Activism & New Media
WHEN: 10 Years Post Deluge |Saturday, August 29, 2015
WHERE: University Center | Xavier University of Louisiana

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Rising Tide NOLA, Inc. presents RISING TIDE X, the 10th annual civic activism & new media conference centered on the recovery and future of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We invite you to be a part of it.

It has been 10 years since Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of the Levees.  In that decade, we have endured other hurricanes & evacuations, the worst oil spill in US History, and a disappearing coast. There's been an ongoing reorganization of public schools, Department of Justice consent decrees with police forces and prisons while violent crime continues to be a problem, a former governor out of prison & running for Congress, a current governor running for President, one former mayor reporting to prison. There's been rapid gentrification and unequal recovery, massive investment in tourism, selective enforcement of rules governing live music, and new hospitals we may not have the money to operate. At the same time, people interact with their communities, government, and news in dramatic new ways. From a daily paper to personal blogs to online newsfeeds to snappy Twitter commentary, we occupy a very different space from a decade ago in both physical and informational senses.  Each of those years, Rising Tide has hosted a conference to explore that space from outside the official narrative of What's Going On, to give voice to those left behind in the wake of the New Orleans Miracles, to remind folks that you can't advertise oil off the beach with a PR campaign, and to point out any number of places We Are (Still) Not OK.

At Rising Tide, we want to put that off-script, unofficial, read-between-the-lines story front and center. We invite you to be a part of it. We do so with this request for proposals for programming, panels, and presentations. 

PROPOSAL FORMAT

Proposals should include the following:

•  a brief description of the topic you wish to address
• a list of participants/presenters describing their relationship to or expertise on the topic
• how the programming will be presented to the audience
•  how the audience will be involved in the presentation through questions, participation, discussion, etc.

Please email brief (2 page max) proposals in plain text, word documents, or PDF attachments to programming@risingtidenola.com.

PROPOSALS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH May 1, 2015.

PROGRAMMING SUGGESTIONS

Rising Tide encourages:

• Focus on civic activism - making changes in the community
• Collaboration between organizations to add multiple and diverse perspectives
• Using social, alternative, or new media to share information, empower communities, and/or organize activism

Programming at Rising Tide is subject to broadcast via webcasts or social media tools.

While programming is free to address political topics, Rising Tide maintains a strict non-partisan forum, current elected officials and campaigning candidates for political offices are discouraged from participating in programming.

 CONFERENCE BACKGROUND

Rising Tide attendance has averaged more than 100 attendees, media, and volunteer staff annually. Conference content live streamed on the web averages over 1000 unique viewers during each event, with archives on our website.

Last year's conference featured a keynote address from education activist Andre Perry, and hosted programming on Lost New Orleans History, the Young Leadership Council (YLC), civic engagement to fix the Treme Center, and religion in Post-Katrina New Orleans . Past speakers have included Lt. General Russel Honore, U.S. Army (ret.), acclaimed local writer Lolis Eric Elie, professor of history Lawrence Powell, Treme and The Wire creator David Simon, geographer Richard Campanella, journalist Mac McClelland, entertainer Harry Shearer, and authors David Zirin, John Barry, Christopher Cooper, and Robert Block. Previous panelists and a description of programming history can be viewed on the Rising Tide website.

More information is available at the Rising Tide website: www.risingtidenola.com; at the Rising Tide blog: www.risingtideblog.blogspot.com; on the Rising Tide Facebook page; and the organization can be followed on Twitter @RisingTide. 

Rising Tide NOLA, Inc. is a non-profit organization formed by New Orleans bloggers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the federally built levees. After the disaster, the internet became a vital connection among dispersed New Orleanians, former New Orleanians, and friends of the city and the Gulf Coast region. A number of new blogs were created, and combined with those that were already online, an online community with a shared interest in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast developed. In the summer of 2006, to mark the anniversary of the flood, the bloggers of New Orleans organized the first Rising Tide Conference, taking their shared interest in technology, the arts, the internet and social media and turning advocacy in the city into action.

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