Vote For The Elevation of Black Women in New Media

I was on twitter today and happened to see this tweet: @ClutchMagazine founder @dedej has a panel pitch for @SXSW called "The Elevation of Blk Women in New Media-Vote Now! http://bit.ly/abeE5L

I was introduced to SXSW this year. It is this MAJOR Music, film, and interactive conference and festival that all the techies go to for networking, scoping out the new new, etc. Well this year they had the 1st Black Blogging Rockstars Panel (watch video) with some of the top black bloggers and tech heads. Deanna, founder of ClutchMagazine and also listed on the BBWO50 Top Women Entrepreneurs on the Network, was a speaker on the Black Bloggers panel and for SXSW 2011 she is pitching a new panel discussion: The Elevation of Black Women in New Media, to focus on issues related to black women entrepreneurs and black women bloggers online.

I immediately clicked to read all about her idea and of course vote for this panel. I then sent Deanna a quick tweet showing my support and to my surprise she told me that she'd like to have me on the panel! Seeing it happen would be awesome, possible being a speaker, would be even better! But we'll see how things go if I officially get on the panel, for now I would just like you to find out more about her idea and vote for this discussion. Do that here: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/5379.

The black blogging community has been talking about our issues not just as bloggers, but as entrepreneurs pushing to work amongst ourselves and gain credibility among mainstream advertisers and I think its high time we take this conversation to another level. On Black Web2.0 there as the post about African American mom bloggers finally getting their just due, myself and some wonderful mommy bloggers took part in the Magical Mocha Moms Mixer sponsored by Disney for Mommy Bloggers of Color, there was an article on BlogHer about African American Women Online seeking online networks and recently the Grio sparked discussion on the state of black women in the blogosphere.

Clearly folks are talking, its time for more of us to join the conversation. I hope you'll take a few minutes to vote for Deana's idea and if it all works out, perhaps more of us will be attending SXSW2011 and showcasing our contributions as the Black Social Media Community of today.


Go Vote and Read those other articles too! -LaShanda H.