This weekend I was supposed to fly to California to attend the Dad 2.0 West Coast Summit-- an extra-annual conference where marketers, social media leaders, and blogging parents connect to discuss the changing voice and perception of modern fatherhood.
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| This was one of the souvenirs from a previous Dad 2 Summit. It turns out, it's now worth beaucoup bucks! |
Read my recaps of previous conferences.
I went to the first one at my wife's insistence-- I did have a dad blog, but I wasn't thinking about marketing, I was thinking about writing, but she wanted to go to Austin for South By Southwest which was happening simultaneously, and this felt like a good way to visit Texas and write off some family vacation expenses.
I loved that conference-- the community of guys, some of whom I was already reading, but many that I didn't know, and the diversity and breadth of writing talent and marketing savvy was palpable.
And I even knew a few guys there! (it turns out that unbeknownst to me, my pals from the New York City Dads Group were also attending in Austin (and also have been to every event ) Talk about Kismet!
Since that time, I've visited various places, including San Diego, San Francisco San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, Washington DC to be with my community of dad writers, marketers, and sponsors, and it's been an important part of my "Recharging process" in terms of my parenting writing, and why I am even blogging at all. And I've done some great events, met some great companies. I even got some writing work out of it!
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| One of the cool events that I got to do as part of the Dad 2.0 Community. Tour the Meadowlands with Doug Flutie! |
This year at the last conference at the end of February in DC, they announced that they would hold an additional summit this year in Los Angeles. I signed up for it, although wasn't sure if October would be the best time for me to travel. But I've been to every one of the summits, and I thought what the heck. This wasn't exactly pre-COVID- I remember being a little leery of my cab drivers and wondering who sat in the Lyft before I got in. But it was definitely before the lockdowns, and the mandatory masking, and the implosion of social gatherings.
THE DECISION TO GO DIGITAL
Dad 2.0 made the announcement this summer that they were going digital, and that my ticket would be good for both the digital conference and the next meat-conference they hold. I was happy because with COID I wasn't planning on traveling anywhere anytime soon.
The three days have been on my google calendar since March, but they were just marked off as three days. Usually when I go to a conference I have traveled there, and I have NOTHING ON MY AGENDA except for the conference. I am there, everything else is on hold. This week, I need to fit in the conference in between my weekly D and D game, my son's skating practice, shepherding him through his homework and virtual classroom day, my wife's busy work schedule, and more.
When my wife and I went over the weekly schedule, I said Oh, Dad 2.0 is this week. She said, "Well, when will you not be available for looking after our son?" Which was both a perfectly reasonable question and something to which I had no idea. I don't typically plan out the conference until I'm on site. When I went to the website to look at the schedule, I noticed something that makes perfect sense, but is also a stark reminder that no matter how connected we get, we won't be together.
The Time Zone Change! Although it was originally a west coast conference, all of the times for the official schedule are on Eastern Standard Time. Since I live in a Central Time Zone state, I need to translate those in my head. And there are guys attending from Europe who have to translate everything 7 or 8 hours.
Here's the schedule- and since this is my blog, I've conveniently translated all of the times to Central.
Do the math in your own head!
| DAD 2 DIGITAL SUMMIT Schedule All times in Central Wed Sept 30 2:30 PM Newbie Seminar 8:00 PM Twitter Party Thurs Oct 1 8:30 AM Fitness with Dai Manuel (Part 1: physical) 10 AM: Opening Doug French and keynote: Michael Ian Black 11:45 AM: Marketplace- Sponsor Networking 1:00 PM Crafting the Counter Pitch 2:30 pm Hack Search and Grow Your Audience 3:30 PM Build Your platform 4:30 PM Stay-at-home Influence |
Friday Oct 2
8:30 AM Fitness with Dai Manuel (Part 2: mental) 10 AM Workshop 11 AM: Video gaming and Family entertainment 2020 trends 11:45 AM: Marketplace Live- Sponsor Networking 1:00 PM Raising Boys To Be Good Men 2:30 PM SEO Like a CEO 3:30 PM Podcast Marketing 7 PM: Happy Hour with Tom and Lucy Riles 8 PM: Dad Voices Saturday Oct 3 8:30 AM Fitness With Dai Manuel (Part 3: Nutritional) 10 AM Workshop 11 AM Hiring A Virtual Assistant 12 PM How To Pitch Anything 1 PM Freelance Writing 2:30 PM Closing Keynote & Closing Toast |
SPONSORS
It will also be interesting to interact with the sponsors. Typically at a conference like this, you spend a lot of time in their booth, getting to know people individually. Not sure how it will work digitally.
They have a fair amount of sponsors. In the past Dove Men+Care has been their major sponsor, but they decided to sit this one out. Here's a list of the sponsors for Dad 2 Digital. From what I can remember, most of these sponsors have not been involved with Dad 2.0 previously.
Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament (which is a bold move, considering that most of their locations are either not yet allowed to operate, or are not operating at even close to full capacity.) I love this place, and actually reviewed their Chicago show back in 2015
Here's a video I took then of some of the swashbuckling and joustingaction.
GSK-Glaxo Smith Klein-- a global health care company.
Intellivision Amico- A throwback to the 1970's is making a comeback, and are presenting a new platform for videogames is still around, and they are reinventing themselves to play on the same field with XBox, Playstation, and Wii. Very excited to find out more about this!
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| This looks like a fun platform for playing games! |
WaterWipes - the wipes that were invented by a dad.
Babo Botanicals - organic, soy-free, gluten free sun care products.
Bluehost- one of the top wordpress and web hosting providers.
Connected Camps- a not-for-profit providing fun learning experiences that foster creativity, problem solving, collaboration and interest-driven learning.
They use Zoom and Minecraft as platforms to teach.
Constant Contact- one of the leaders in online marketing.
LiceFreee!- A safe alternative to traditional chemical pesticide head lice treatment.
Mediavine- a full service ad management and monetization partner for bloggers.
Trane a maker of HVAC and home comfort equipment.
Fathering Together is a 501c3 that supports individuals who identify as fathers to become better parents and people.
REGISTER
There's still time to register for Dad 2.0! To do so, visit http://www.dad2.com and click the red register button.
It's $99 for the digital conference only, and $149 to register for the digital conference and Dad 2 2021, wherever that might be in the physical world.
I'm not sure where it will be, but I'm pretty sure I will be there!
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