This session will offer training and tips in the basics of investigative journalism, with special emphasis on election-year issues.

Trainers: Joe Conason

Years worth of bailouts and bank regulation debates have placed a new level of political focus on the Federal Reserve. It has been a topic for the Occupy movement and those concerned with out-of-control financial institutions and the weak recovery. And in the next year, the Federal Reserve, without political pressure, could dismantle financial regulation and stop an economy about to take off. How does the left engage the Federal Reserve? This panel will dive into potential answers.

Led by: Mike Konczal

Panelists: Lisa Donner, Karl Smith, Matthew Yglesias

From epidemics of asthma to water shortages, our most vulnerable populations are disproportionately impacted by pollution and global warming—and it’s time for our environmental fights to reflect this. For decades, communities of color and indigenous peoples have fought discriminatory environmental policies and disproportionate toxic burdens from polluting industries, but these efforts must be brought to the mainstream. Fortunately, youth leaders from communities impacted by environmental racism are already doing just that—utilizing new media, GPS mapping and social networks to advocate for solutions that support environmental justice and the ever-growing realities of global climate change. This panel will share tools and strategies for energizing communities and holding polluters and legislators accountable, including the role open-source technology has in creating and maintaining national collaborations, and tricks for connecting clicks and likes with boots on the ground.

People, Not Polar Bears: Digital Revolutions and the New Fight Against Climate Change

Miss this panel? No problem! Here’s what happened.

Storified by Netroots Nation · Thu, Jun 07 2012 18:01:10

Led by: Katie DeCarlo

Panelists: Kari Fulton, Lilian Molina, Ryan Young

Black and brown voters turned out in record numbers in 2008. However, the introduction of voter ID initiatives in many states creates a new barrier for many Americans, particularly in traditionally disenfranchised communities of color. Voters in these communities—as well as students, seniors, the working poor and those with disabilities—will be most impacted. What coalitions and campaigns are underway to ensure these voters have equal access to the polls? How can we ensure that their voting rights are safeguarded and their voices counted? Panelists will provide case studies of campaign strategies and community solutions and tackle tough questions concerning voter ID laws.

Protecting Voting Rights in Communities of Color in 2012

Miss this panel? No problem! Here’s what happened.

Storified by Netroots Nation · Thu, Jun 07 2012 19:03:22

Led by: Erica Williams

Panelists: Biko Baker, Derrick Beetso, David Castillo, Kirin Kennedy, Marvin Randolph

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

Miss this panel? No problem! Here’s what happened.

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

Anti-gay attacks banning same-sex marriage, as well as pro-marriage equality legislation, ballot initiatives, judicial cases and electoral fights, have swept the country since 1996 when Congress passed the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. Since then, activists and campaigners have been criss-crossing the country working to secure equal marriage rights for all. This panel will bring together leading activists and experts to discuss what lessons can be learned from previous fights in California, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New York and Washington. Panelists will provide insight into how those lessons can be applied in a changing 2012 landscape and practical advice for launching an effort in your own state.

Led by: Monte Jarvis

Panelists: Richard Carlbom, Michael Crawford, David Fleischer, Dustin Lambro

Working across class, generation, ethnic and trade barriers, Working Rhode Island is following the “One Big Union” model in exciting and dynamic ways. Built out of a common need to organize against a conservative Republican governor, the groups assembled around the Working Rhode Island table left the old rules behind to figure out new ways to work together against common enemies. It’s led to amazing results, including seeing the Rhode Island AFL-CIO endorse marriage equality legislation, primary challenges to Democratic incumbents from labor-backed candidates and immigrant rights being considered workers’ rights. There have been fights and losses along the way, but plenty of victories too. Without a doubt, Working Rhode Island is a model for the nation.

Led by: Patrick Crowley

Panelists: Kate Brock, Scott Duhamel, George Nee, Robert Walsh

Much of progressive organizing relies on registering and turning out underrepresented communities and mobilizing those communities against the conservative agenda. New technology aims to eliminate barriers to democratic participation by making it easier for voters to register to vote, find their polling place, obtain an absentee ballot, research candidates, connect with each other and advocate for positions to their elected officials. This panel of leading technologists will speak about the ways technology is making it easier to participate in the democratic process.

Five Ways Technology is Making Democracy Easier

Miss this panel? No problem! Here’s what happened.

Storified by Netroots Nation · Thu, Jun 07 2012 17:56:13

Led by: Anthea Watson Strong

Panelists: Tiana Epps-Johnson, Seth Flaxman, Marci Harris, Eric Hysen

In this video adaptation of her best-selling book, pioneering feminist blogger Jessica Valenti trains her sights on “the virginity movement”—an unholy alliance of evangelical Christians, right-wing politicians and conservative policy intellectuals who have been exploiting irrational fears about women’s sexuality to roll back women’s rights. From dad-and-daughter purity balls, taxpayer-funded abstinence-only curricula and political attacks on Planned Parenthood to recent attempts by legislators to de-fund women’s reproductive health care and narrow the legal definition of rape, Valenti identifies a single, unifying assumption: the myth that the worth of a woman depends on what she does—or does not do—sexually. In the end, Valenti argues that the health and well-being of women is too important to be left to ideologues bent on vilifying feminism and undermining women’s autonomy.

Panelists: Jessica Valenti

Ever see an advertisement for a pair of shoes or your favorite vacation destination follow you around the internet?

There is no greater medium for targeting the individuals your campaign or organization need to deliver electoral, organizing or legislative victories. With digital use on the rise you need how to build an online advertising campaign that meets your goals. Attendees will leave knowing how to develop and optimize an online advertising plan using Google, Facebook, and other popular platforms and tools. Anyone can do it.

Trainers: Andrew Roos, Tim Tagaris

After a busy day of panels and training sessions, you can power up with food generously provided by PPFA and connect with old friends before the keynote begins.

We’ll kick off Netroots Nation with an opening keynote from New York’s Attorney General and the man the American Prospect calls The Man Banks Fear Most, Eric Schneiderman. Other speakers will include: Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, environmentalist Bill McKibben, Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards, NEA’s Lily Eskelsen, and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin. The evening is MC’d by Baratunde Thurston.

Opening keynote featuring Eric Schneiderman

Storified by Netroots Nation · Thu, Jun 07 2012 21:35:03

Led by: Baratunde Thurston

Panelists: Rep. Tammy Baldwin, Lily Eskelsen, Bill McKibben, Cecile Richards, Eric T. Schneiderman, Mayor Angel Taveras