By For the past several years I’ve been working with a local non-profit that has worked to promote and educate local digital marketers. I am no longer affiliated with them as I’ve been working on a new type of event. Dallas lacks a group or conference that works to promote local marketing and technology thought leaders and has never had an event series designed to raise money for local charities and to keep costs low for all to attend. Today, that all changes.
The Announcement
Today I want to announce Digital x Dallas (Digital by Dallas), a quarterly event with three main goals:
1. Provide a low cost learning experience for local digital marketers, businesses, and tech workers.
2. Provide a place where local marketers can gain experience speaking to crowds.
3. Raise funds for a local charity.
Digital x Dallas will accomplish our goals by working with the various meetup groups and running blind selection on our speakers. All presentations will be video recorded and uploaded to our video channels and live streamed over our website. We’ll keep the cost of attendance low but ask that viewers and attendees donate to the charity we selected and to our operational budget. All of our finances will be completely transparent on our website.
Here is our founding principles that we’ll live and breathe by.
1. Transparency – We’ll be 100% transparent as to how much money we collect and where that money is spent (in broad categories). Our goal is to donate almost everything if not all of the money to the local charity we pledge to support for each event.
2. Charity – We’ll select 1 charity for each quarterly event. We’ll donate all ticket sales to this charity and encourage online viewers to donate money as well.
3. Ease of Access – We’ll keep ticket prices low to allow more people to attend and contribute and distribute materials online via our website, live streaming, and on demand videos.
4. Blind Selection – Before selecting speakers for an event the names will be removed from a pitch and we’ll select speakers only on the merit of their pitch and fit of the topic. (not keynotes)
5. Open – We’ll be open and honest about everything we do and encourage input from all attendees.
6. Cooperative – We’ll work to cooperate with large national conferences, not compete with them, to help promote our outstanding speakers and talent and help the national conference grow.
7. Really Cooperative – We’ll work to promote the wide array of meetup groups in the area, blogs, slide decks, and videos to help professionals continue to learn and grow.
8. Non-biased – We’ll work hard to stay fair and give ample opportunities for all when it comes to selecting keynote speakers.
Let’s build something beautiful together Dallas. Let’s do something we can all be proud of.
Let’s do something good.
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