Sex writer? Attending Sex 2.0?

We have many great sessions for writers, authors and bloggers this year at Sex 2.0. With our recent publication of our sessions list I wanted to make sure people were aware of Jack Murnighan’s call for writers to send in any writing samples you may have so he can integrate them into his session Sex Writing Beyond Erotica, Beyond Porn. Check out the details and Jack’s bio below. His email address is jack at nerve dot com.

Sex Writing Beyond Erotica, Beyond Porn
Why should we write about sex? And if we want to, how should we do it? This seminar will address the challenge of integrating sex and sexuality into fiction, journalism, and magazine writing, all the while avoiding all the trappings of erotica, porn, and lad-mag prurience. Of all interpersonal and cultural phenomena, sex might simultaneously be the most influential but least understood. In this seminar, we’ll approach sex with open minds and attuned bodies, seeking a mature, sophisticated sense of the psychology, personal and cultural import, nuance, and general mystery of sex for most people. Attendees are encouraged to send me samples of their sex writing beforehand (to jack at nerve dot com) so I can integrate them into our discussion. I will also provide do-and-don’t examples from real articles and give tips on how to get published by nerve.com and magazines in general.
Session leader: Jack Murnighan

Jack Murnighan is the former editor-in-chief of nerve.com and now their editor-at-large. He’s published two books on sex in the history of literature (The Naughty Bits and Classic Nasty), had short stories anthologized widely (including The Best American Erotica collections of 1999, 2000, and 2001), and twice taught sex writing at the Penn Writers Conference. His newest book, Beowulf on the Beach: What to Love and What to Skip in Literature’s 50 Greatest Hits, will be released May 19, and he is currently working on a racy novel. He can be reached at jack@nerve.com.

Sex 2.0 Press Release

Please help spread the word and repost/send the press release wherever you think it’s appropriate. Thanks!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Match
email: match@playwithmatch.com

The second Sex 2.0 to focus on the intersection of social media, feminism and sexuality

WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 27, 2009. Now in our second year, Sex 2.0, a one-day unconference, will take place on May 9, 2009 in Washington, D.C. Sex 2.0 will focus on the intersection of social media, feminism, and sexuality. How is social media enabling people to learn, grow, and connect sexually? How is sexual expression tied to social activism? Does the concept of transparency online offer new opportunities or present new roadblocks — or both?  Sex 2.0 is an unconference, which means that sessions will be informal conversations organized by people attending the event. Session leaders with some knowledge in a subject area facilitate conversations among the participants.

Sessions will include: “Internet Advocacy for Sexual Freedom” with Ricci Joy Levy of the Woodhull Foundation; “Polyamory in Media’s Spotlight” with Anita Wagner; “Craigslist Red, Craigslist Blue: Why we should dismantle the “internet red light district” with Melissa Gira Grant and Joanne McNeill;  “Kick Ass Twitter Apps” with Cunning Minx; “Revenge Porn” with Maria Diaz; and “Sex Writing Beyond Erotica, Beyond Porn” with Jack Murnighan, Nerve.com editor-at-large. The keynote speaker will be Nikol Hasler, creator of the Midwest Teen Sex Show (http://midwestteensexshow.com). A complete list of sessions may be viewed at: http://sex20con.com/2009-schedule/sessions/

Sex 2.0 will be held in a Washington, D.C. hotel. (To ensure everyone’s privacy, location information will be email once you are registered). It will offer five conference rooms, a lounge (with free WiFi), vendor area as well as space for various sex-positive outreach groups to set up informational displays and tables.

The event is managed by volunteers and funded by sponsors. We are pleased to have SEXTOY.com as our presenting sponsor this year. SEXTOY.com has been focusing on building a relationship within the blogger community with the recent start-up of its sex toy reviewer program. SEXTOY.com is honored to be the official sponsor for Sex 2.0 and looks forward to a mutually rewarding relationship with the blogger Community.  Two SEXTOY.com associates will be attending Sex 2.0 this year: Erik Van Riper and Domina Doll; who both look forward to meeting everyone, attending the talks and participating in discussions. Sex 2.0 is also pleased to have community sponsor Bound Not Gagged (www.boundnotgagged.com), hospitality sponsor Kimberleecline.com and technology sponsor PosAlt.com supporting this years conference.

While the event itself is on Saturday, May 9, there are participant-organized meetups, outings, and parties being planned for Friday night and Saturday evening, as well as a Sunday brunch. For more information, visit the Sex 2.0 website at www.sex20con.com or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/sex20con.

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Sessions & Session Leaders

We’ve updated the Session Leaders list and have posted the Sex 2.0 sessions (which are subject to change).

Bound, Not Gagged Happy Hour, May 7th

The Desiree Alliance is pleased to invite you to attend a happy hour to support our web blog project, BoundNotGagged.com

BoundnotGagged.com is a place for sex workers to respond to the way that we’re portrayed in the media and the way that sexist laws are used to undermine our rights. It is one way that we respond to the injustice and hypocrisy that keeps sex workers’ voices muted and faces hidden. Sex workers may be forced into hiding, but we refuse to be silent.

The Desiree Alliance is committed to creating space and campaigns that address self-identified needs of sex workers. We are proud to sponsor this project to provide a platform where sex workers can speak for ourselves.

Please join us in Washington DC for our first ever meet-up with some of the blog contributors and other friends and allies for sex workers rights.

When: May 7th, 2009; 5-7pm
Where: Madam’s Organ, Soul Food Restaurant & Blues Bar, 2461 18th Street, NW Washington, DC 20009

This happy hour is a pre-event hosted in conjunction with Sex 2.0, focusing on the intersection of social media, feminism, and sexuality. BoundNotgagged.com is a proud sponsor of the second annual Sex 2.0 “un”-conference on May 9th, 2009 in Washington.

Welcome our newest sponsor: Bound Not Gagged

Sex 2.0 is pleased to welcome our newest sponsor, Bound Not Gagged:

BoundnotGagged.com is a place for sex workers to respond to the way that we’re portrayed in the media and the way that sexist laws are used to undermine our rights. It is one way that we respond to the injustice and hypocrisy that keeps sex workers’ voices muted and faces hidden. Sex workers may be forced into hiding, but we refuse to be silent.

Early bird extended 2 days!

Our mistake is your gain! Early Bird registration was to end today but an error in the ticket price switch made the system stop selling tickets this meant that no tickets could be bought today.

Our mistake is your gain as we have extended our early bird registration by two days to make up for anyone who tried to buy today but couldn’t.

Thanks to the quick to notice attendees that pointed this out.

Early Bird registration will now end April, 16th and 8am. After that tickets will go up to $40. Save $10 and register today!
http://sex20con.eventbrite.com/

Update: Hotel room block

No idea what they where thinking. There are about 15 rooms left in our block for both Friday and Saturday night. Be sure to use the group name you get in your hotel notification when you register.

Please contact me directly if you cannot book a room at our special rate! match13 AT gmail DOT com

Match

Sex 2.0 skeleton Schedule

This is the skeleton (no details) schedule for how Sex 2.0 will go down this year.

Note: This does not include any attendee organized events or functions, this is just the skeleton for Saturday DAY.

Saturday May, 9th 2009
8:00am Registration Opens
9:00-9:15am Opening Remarks
9:15-9:45 Keynote Speaker
9:45-10:00 BREAK
10:00-10:50 Session Block 1 (4 classes)
10:50-11:05 BREAK
11:00 Vendors open (if not already open)
11:05-11:55 Session Block 2 (4 classes)
Noon-1:30 LUNCH BREAK
1:30-2:20 Session Block 3 (4 classes)
2:20-2:35 BREAK
2:35-3:25 Session Block 4 (4 classes)
3:25-3:40 BREAK
3:40-4:30 Session Block 5 (4 classes)
4:30-4:40 Short break
4:40-5:00 Closing remarks/discussion
5:00-6:00 *
7pm vendors close

*We could have another session block here but I thought we could leave our 4 rooms open for any impromptu discussions or topics that may come up. Some people may choose to break out for dinner, other can use our rooms for discussions or Meetups. The space will be made available and I will not book in advance

You will notice that there are 15minutes breaks between each session block. This is not only to allow you ample time to find your next session but I also wanted to leave time for people to chat in the hallways – we are a community after all! Running from session to session is no fun so these 15 minute gaps should be nice.

Speakers: If you prefer one time slot over another please let me know! If you have multiple sessions please let me know which slot you would like for each.

FYI: Hotel room block

As discussed on the google groups page we been informed that our reserved block of discounted rooms has been ‘sold out’. We have a call into the hotel and should have our block expanded to add more rooms by tomorrow (Thursday). While this is great news in that Sex 2.0 has booked a lot of rooms for that weekend we know that many of you have yet to do so. We, know on wood, shouldn’t have an issue extending out block of rooms.

Also, the hotel is in fact sold out of rooms on Thursday May, 7th but there are still ‘plenty of rooms‘ (so sayith the reservation lady on the phone) for Friday and Saturday nights.

I will update tomorrow once I speak to our hotel rep. I just wanted to let everyone know what I know as quickly as I could.

Thanks,
Match