Sex 2.0 planning and updates for 2010, and survey results

A few notes about how Sex 2.0 will work for 2010. This will be kind of long, but please read the whole thing!

Organizational updates

As I mentioned in an earlier post, going forward the conference will be overseen by a steering committee comprised of up to 13 people who have attended at least two previous Sex 2.0s. The steering committee is responsible for high-level management and direction of the conference, e.g., making sure each year’s event is in line with the conference’s core values.

The Sex 2.0 2010 Steering Committee is: Audacia Ray, Elizabeth Wood, Ellie Lumpesse, Melissa Gira Grant, Renegade Evolution, Rusty Tanton, Stacey Swimme, Viviane, and moi.

Here are just a few examples of the types of things the steering committee will be responsible for:

• Mission statement, language on web site, framing of conference goals, etc. (including a “lexicon” Ren is working on! sometimes we forget that some of the language we use can be very inside baseball)
• Establishing and maintaining best practices
• Overall high-level maintenance of web site
• Answering questions local organizers might have about logistics

Additionally, as I stated previously, the on-the-ground organizing and logistics for the Seattle event itself will be handled by a mostly-locally-based team. Furry Girl has already expressed interest in utilizing her unique position as local to Seattle and having attended two Sex 2.0s to serve as a liaison between the local folks and the steering committee. Allena from the Center for Sex Positive Culture (our venue) will also be heavily involved, and I know several other Seattle folks have expressed interest in being involved. Don’t hesitate in getting yourselves together ASAP – there’s going to be a lot of work to do, and the more enthusiastic people involved, the better! The great thing is, we already have a venue and a hotel, so those two issues, which are typically two of the biggest concerns, are out of the way.

Changes for 2010 based on your feedback

Now, onto some particulars for Sex 2.0 2010. Based on the results of the survey, the clear preference is to cap conference attendance. Based on the survey answers and feedback in the Google group, next year’s attendance will be capped at 250 participants.

There was also overwhelming feedback in support of making Sex 2.0 two days instead of one. There were many different responses as to how the two days should be structured, but the majority answer was “All day Saturday, Sunday morning/early afternoon” with “Friday late afternoon/evening, all day Saturday” as a close runner-up. Ultimately, the Seattle team will make the decision of what the two days will look like based on factors such as the venue’s availability and continued input from members of the Google group.

The majority of survey respondents said the length of sessions was just right at 50 minutes, although it was close, with an almost equal number of people saying it was too short. My recommendation would be to increase session length to 1 hour as it was in 2008 and maintain the 10 minute break between sessions. But ultimately that decision will be up to the Seattle team.

Overwhelmingly, survey respondents indicated that they prefer discussion-oriented sessions rather than one-way lectures or presentations. One of the most common complaints about the sessions was that they did not have enough participation. As this is one of Sex 2.0′s core values, everyone involved in the steering committee, the local team, and of course everyone on the Google group (because we’re all involved in some way, none of us are passive – another core value!) will be working hard with this in mind to ensure that 2010′s sessions get back to the conference’s roots. To go along with that, we may offer a short training for discussion leaders on how to handle potential derailing, as that was a problem in some sessions that endeavored to be more discussion-oriented.

Survey respondents also felt that an official pre-conference organized event for participants that is more neutral than “Brownies and Porn” would be a fun and important way for people to get to know each other. The Seattle team will work out the particulars of the pre-con event with input from everyone in the Google group.

A large majority of survey respondents were happy with the privacy/photography policy and we will be maintaining it next year, and working even harder next  year to make sure it is strictly enforced.

I promised myself I wouldn’t cry

As always, thanks to everyone for your continued support of this crazy idea. It is absolutely amazing to see this scheme I hatched in a backyard in 2007 turn into a one-of-a-kind full-blown conference now in its third year. Everyone, please continue to be actively involved in bringing Sex 2.0 2010 to fruitition! See y’all in Seattle. :)