Wall Street crashed our economy, perpetrated widespread fraud on millions of homeowners, bankrupted our communities and continues to inject unfettered corporate money into our democracy. That’s the bad news. The good news: In an extraordinary example of progressive power, a group of organizations and individuals built a dynamic movement to challenge big bank power and rebuild our economy. People have occupied their homes, moved millions of dollars out of big banks, taken over big bank offices and annual shareholders meetings, won a federal investigation into big bank fraud and made big bank power the pariah in media coverage. In this session, participants will dive into specific strategies—from grassroots organizing to online mobilization to popular education—that led to this groundswell. We’ll also have a lively discussion on taking lessons back into your own community to and how to make this a central issue this election cycle.

The Heart of the Beast: How the Grassroots is Taking on Big Banking

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Storified by Netroots Nation · Thu, Jun 07 2012 12:17:32

Led by: Tracy Van Slyke

Panelists: Max Berger, Matt Browner-Hamlin, Peggy Mears, Lenore Palladino

The SOPA and PIPA bills were defeated by a fascinating combination of forces. There was an inside game in Washington and an outside one online. It included liberals and conservatives, and it brought together the public, non-profits and the business community in common cause. The panel will look at the cross-cutting effects of the effort and determine what lessons to take away for other campaigns at the federal, state or local level.

Organizing Lessons from SOPA and PIPA

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Storified by Netroots Nation · Thu, Jun 07 2012 14:37:16

Led by: Art Brodsky

Panelists: Stephen DeMaura, Andrew McLaughlin, David Moon, Steven Renderos

Want to know more about what’s happening in battleground states like Ohio and Pennsylvania? Curious about key races and major ballot initiatives coming up? Come to one of these battleground state caucuses and find out how you can get involved. Facilitators will give an overview of the landscape in each state, talk about whats’s at stake and tell you ways you can volunteer or plug in to existing efforts. NOTE: These sessions are not just for residents of those states; come if you’re interested in getting involved or learning more.

From birth control to same-sex marriage, it’s clear that the right is reinvigorating a culture war on sex and sexual freedom ahead of the 2012 election. We need to fight back with language—and movements—that include and accept a diversity of sexual practices and identities instead of reproducing the casual shaming and marginalization offered by the right. Panelists, ranging from polyamorous organizers to famous sex writers and activists, will lead a raucous and fun discussion of why the progressive movement can only benefit from fully embracing of people who live, love, and—yes—have sex, in radical defiance of existing norms of gender, family and sexual practice.

Liberate Your Ass: Why Sexual Freedom is Key to Fighting the Right

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Storified by Netroots Nation · Thu, Jun 07 2012 17:50:25

Led by: Jenifer Fernandez Ancona

Panelists: Elisabeth Fernandez-Kimmel, Charlie Glickman, Kierra Johnson, Favianna Rodriguez, William Winters

There are new emerging movements online that differ from their identity-based or multi-issue predecessors, ones that bring new people into the progressive movement and represent an exciting evolution of our organizing theories and practices. The offline-to-online engagement of Occupy, the emergence of a banking and housing crisis constituency online, laser-focused corporate accountability campaigns, new approaches to organizing women and the emergence of a global LGBT movement all represent huge interconnected communities dealing with major structural issues that have the potential to build global long-term progressive power. But how did this happen? What are the opportunities that emerged to make room for new movements? And how are the organizers capitalizing on those opportunities?

Emerging Movements: The Face of New Progressive Online Communities

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Storified by Netroots Nation · Thu, Jun 07 2012 17:51:19

Led by: James Rucker

Panelists: Andre Banks, Natalie Foster, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, Shaunna Thomas

How can social and racial justice organizations leverage technology on behalf of criminal justice campaigns? Panelists will discuss how their respective organizations utilize the internet, social media platforms and mobile devices to spread awareness about criminal justice violations impacting communities of color. Particular campaigns to be highlighted include those against the NYPD’s racially-targeted “Stop and Frisk” policy; the wrongful imprisonment of 10 innocent men in Cook County, IL, on the basis of forced confessions; the execution of Troy Davis without proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt on the basis of unreliable eyewitness testimony; and the proposal to replace the storm-damaged Orleans Parish Prison with a massively-expanded facility. Panelists will share best practices, successes and challenges and ways to improve the efficacy of 21st century technology in criminal justice campaigns.

Combatting Criminal Justice Violations: Challenging Assumptions and Winning Campaigns

Storified by Netroots Nation · Fri, Jun 08 2012 17:22:14

Led by: Dani McClain

Panelists: Kamau Franklin, Dana Kaplan, Laura Moye, Matt Nelson

Androids and iPhones are quickly becoming our primary gateways to the Internet. The ways that we organize political and advocacy campaigns, produce and communicate with our world depends on access to them and the broadband data connections they provide. But imagine livestreaming video from a protest and running up against data caps. Imagine planning out your next SMS campaign, and the phone companies telling you they don’t like the content. These threats to mobile freedom are real. As we fight for control over our mobile experience, it’s fair to say that your phone is political. This panel will discuss how the power dynamic between the carriers and the public is affecting our ability to communicate via mobile phones, why the progressive community must stand up for mobile freedom and how we can create better policies that protect us from wireless carrier abuse.

Led by: Josh Levy

Panelists: Garlin Gilchrist II, Joaquin Guerra, Sabrina Hersi Issa, Jamilah King

This panel will explore case studies that exemplify outstanding mobile organizing practices and how they’re going to be critical in 2012. Panelists will share their experiences in bridging the digital divide by using texts to drive advocacy phone calls; taking the work out of calling your legislator through click-to-call widgets; using texts to build your list of supporters and syncing that list with the data that in your CRM to move supporters up the ladder of engagement. Plus we’ll discuss how to generate action, online and offline, and benefit from a high return on engagement.

Organizing Issue-Based Campaigns with College Students

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Storified by Netroots Nation · Fri, Jun 08 2012 17:47:20

Led by: Jed Alpert

Panelists: Doug Foote, Kristin Koch, Liba Rubenstein, Michelle Whittaker

Every year on the state and local level, the Netroots works to elect candidates to offices large and small, win victories in legislative fights and hold their elected officials accountable. Increasingly, these efforts are being matched by the building of critical internal infrastructure within legislative bodies themselves: progressive caucuses of lawmakers who are working to advance policy agendas, win messaging wars and influence the debate in their states and cities. This session brings together many involved in these efforts—from advocacy groups, city councils and state legislatures—to address critical questions and share their experiences about how state and local progressive caucuses can best work with allies to define progressive values in red and blue states alike and grow the national progressive movement.

Led by: Suman Raghunathan

Panelists: State Rep. Chris Blazejewski, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Brian Rothenberg

Women are dramatically underrepresented in almost every level of media and popular culture, whether they’re writing, directing, producing or greenlighting projects. While most media criticism tends to focus on the representations of women, whether in romantic comedies or on comic book covers, it’s time to pay attention to who is—and isn’t—making decisions about how culture gets made in the first place. We’ll break down the numbers on women—in particular, women of color—in media; talk about the importance of the pop culture chain of command; and discuss the best ways for consumers to put pressure on companies to produce more genuinely progressive stories, characters and explorations of women’s issues in mass culture.

Led by: Alyssa Rosenberg

Panelists: Anna Holmes, Elana Levin, Alli Thresher

This panel will share insights to help you interpret the next set of polling data you see. We’ll discuss the huge challenge of sampling cell-phone-only households, whether mainstream media outlets should start covering automated polling, the current state of polling over the internet and whether social media has a role to play in measuring public opinion.

Making Sense of Polling Data

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Storified by Netroots Nation · Sat, Jun 09 2012 16:24:53

Led by: Greg Dworkin

Panelists: Mark Blumenthal, Jon Cohen, Margie Omero, David C. Wilson