Contact Conference 2011

February 28, 2011

Contact Conference logo

Contact Conference | Conceived and facilitated by Douglas Rushkoff, Contact seeks to explore and realize the greater promise of social media to promote new forms of culture, commerce, collective action, and creativity. Bringing together technologists, artists, activists, businesspeople, funders, and other stakeholders in the networked future, this summit will hatch new ideas, connect collaborators, and forge an ongoing community for innovating social media and beyond.

From the development of a new non-hierarchical Internet to the implementation of alternative e-currencies, the prototyping of open source democracy to experiments in collective cultural expression, Contact will seek to initiate mechanisms that realize the true promise of the networking revolution.

The first summit, to be held October 20 at the historic Angel Orensanz Center in New York City, will be a participatory festival for ideas and action, consisting primarily of meetings convened by attendees. Featured participants will deliver brief “provocations” on stage, sharing the greatest challenges they are facing in their particular fields. But their primary contribution to the day will be to join in the meetings convened by other participants, sharing their experience, insight, and even connections to help bring these ideas into reality.