Sex::Tech Day #2 Sex, Phones and Fun!

Had a harder time getting up Day #2 in combination of jetlag, going out and a late night visit to the Lusty Lady, San Francisco's famous collectively owned and operated peep show. Nice ladies, for sure, and a "don't touch the walls" sticky old school sleaze atmosphere.

Monday Sex::Tech Keynote:
Dean Eckles, Nokia Innovative Design Tools "Using Mobile to Persuade"
Bill Bailey at Distributive Networks, who designed the Obama TXT msg campaign
Gregg Witt, Creative Director of Premise Marketing "Authenticity in Youth Marketing"

-I came late, so caught the tail end of Nokia Design.

-Did catch the entire Obama txt campaign... totally inspiring. Basically, this guy pioneered the "announce VP Joe Biden by txt message" tantalizer to get a million people to sign up for alerts. It worked. His advice: use full words and sentences when using txt messages to speak for the president. LOL.

-Premise Marketing- Gregg Witt, who gave a presentation about authenticity and using the senses to get people interested. Did a collaboration with the Partnership for a Drug Free America. They asked him to design a campaign, and they teamed up with
A & E's "Intervention" to make a film (I heart "Intervention"). They also made a game. It's called "WRECKed" and its an interactive card game, with jokers, Meth, pot, coke and a lot of "choose your own adventure" type of scenarios. He said the video is cool, but the most effective tool is the interactivity of the game.

**Inspires me and my use of "The Line" film, short enough so there is plenty of time to get people talking afterwards. Key is provocative questions and interactivity!**

-Unconference – a self organizing set of sessions posted by attendees. I hosted a screening. Great turnout! Lots of teenagers! folks from California State Public Health Department, Planned Parenthood, Social workers, etc.

My favorite endorsement:
“This is real. No one can see this and not pay attention. This ain’t cheesy” –
Henry, 17 y.o.

-Fireside chat with Heather Corrina, founder and author of Scarleteen.com. She advocates and delivers a holistic, in-depth and communal approach to sex –ed by building a web-community on her site, and by focusing her personal and individualized attention on each question that comes in. She has an international web of volunteers.

-Strange session I stumbled into, where a presenter actually warned us against the web being a receptacle of limited choices for women, such as SMUT and JIHAD! The crowd was not pleased. Sort of the only Lemon of the conference.

-Jenni Skylar, a PhD candidate gave a great presentation on Interweaving Intimacy and Electronic Technology. Great use of provocative imagery to open up the conversation for debate.

- Government Tools for STD/STI prevention – interesting comparison between America and Canada, The CDC conducted a “what if” survey: what if you could get tested for an STI at the mall? At Wall-Mart? At Rite-Aid? In Canada mobile testing units are common, and they have better results than we do. Normalizing the process and procedure.

Overall, fantastic Public Health/Tech experience. I'd like to see (and will propose) for next year, perhaps a discussion using clips of THE LINE and the dialogue that follows a viweing of the film to discuss how self esteem and peer support can effect sexual choices and behaviors.