Sam Graham-Felsen

When Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president in early 2007, few expected that a freshman Senator with a funny name would stand a chance against the "inevitable" Hillary Clinton. But Obama, leveraging the power of the Internet, built an unprecedented grassroots movement, shattered previous campaign records – including an unheard-of $500 million raised online – and effectively rewrote the political playbook. In this dynamic presentation, Sam Graham-Felsen, Obama's chief blogger and a senior member of the campaign's new media team, will share the inside story of how Obama employed blogging, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and sophisticated email targeting to build the most successful campaign in history.

In the wake of Obama's 2008 victory, digital media is no longer an afterthought for campaigns—it is a critical component to a winning strategy. Sam Graham-Felsen, the chief blogger of Obama's 2008 campaign, will explore the ways campaigns are using digital strategy in this critical election year. How has digital campaigning evolved from Howard Dean's MeetUp strategy to Obama's online fundraising juggernaut to the new frontier of mobile campaigning? Can Obama reignite the movement he built in 2008—and how are his digital strategies changing in his reelection bid? How are Republican candidates for president—especially the eventual nominee—using new media? How are tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, iPhone, and Android apps helping candidates spread their messages and raise money? Who's winning the online war, and why?

The Millennials—the largest generation since the Baby Boomers—are the first generation to come of age in the Internet Era. Unlike their parents, they didn't have to adapt to digital culture—they were born into it—and this has had an enormous effect on how they view the world. When a kid in pajamas can edit a Wikipedia entry as easily as an Oxford professor can, it radically alters notions of hierarchy. When anyone can instantaneously publish and broadcast, regardless of title or prestige, it creates a microcelebrity culture, a democratization of self-importance. Their parents never had "followers." When tastemakers and middlemen are being cut out left and right—when America's biggest pop stars are being handpicked by young fans who vote by SMS—ordinary individuals feel more empowered than ever. Their parents grew up with radio and TV—they spent their childhoods listening and watching. These kids grew up talking back.

Sam Graham-Felsen will explain how these major generational shifts are creating a global impact—from the way Millennials are shaking up the workplace and the business world, to the way they're rising up in revolutionary protests around the world. If businesses, nonprofits, and political campaigns want to reach this generation, they'll have to understand what makes them tick.

By 2020, Generation Y – also known as the Millennials – will comprise the majority of the workforce. The largest generation since the Baby Boomers, these "Digital Natives" have been shaped by massive technological shifts and hold dramatically different ideas about collaboration, transparency, and life/work balance from previous age cohorts. Meanwhile, Millennials are the most diverse, tolerant, and socially conscious generation ever – and they expect employers to be socially responsible. So how can the employers and managers of businesses, nonprofits, and government organizations most effectively deal with this generational shift in the workforce? In this keynote speech, Sam Graham-Felsen suggests that the solution is to think like a start-up by radically reconsidering the physical office space; encouraging productive sharing, rather than blocking access to social media; building a fun and engaging office culture; and moving beyond mere monetary incentives to create a larger sense of mission for employees.

A social media strategy is no longer optional – it is critical to the success of your organization. In this intensive seminar, social media expert Sam Graham-Felsen will lead your business or nonprofit through fundamentals and best practices of building an action-oriented website, planning and writing targeted and effective emails, growing and sustaining an online audience on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, and using YouTube and blogs to tell your story and build loyalty among your fans. Graham-Felsen will then work with you to craft a customized social media strategic blueprint for your organization.

We are in a new paradigm. People are tired of hollow marketing clichés, and they tune out traditional broadcast marketing like static. They don't hear it because it doesn't speak to them, include them, or take them seriously. The old, top-down broadcast model – that sold people ideas, products, and candidates by inundating them with a take-it-or-leave-it message – is crumbling. The new model – the model that propelled Obama to the Presidency – is a two-way dynamic, a conversation, a relationship.

People are hungry for authenticity – and when they do hear an authentic message, the response can be overwhelming. In this new climate, the companies that flourish will be the ones who empower consumers – who offer them opportunities to engage and tap into their desire for community. Keynote speaker Sam Graham-Felsen will explain how your organization can create authentic content that cuts through the white noise, build a loyal online following, and cultivate superfans who will evangelize on your behalf.

2011 was the defining year of the Millennial generation. Not since 1968 has a year so deeply embodied the pain and promise of a generation, and not since 1968 has the world changed so rapidly in so little time. It's no wonder Time magazine named "The Protester" its Person of the Year. Why now? Why did so many young people, in so many places, who felt powerless for so long, activate in 2011? How did these visionaries use new technologies to spread ideas, organize supporters, and mobilize mass actions in support of their causes? What can be learned from these young leaders who sparked movements from Cairo to Madrid to Tel Aviv to New York City? For decades, people have tried to start movements, yet failed. How did these people succeed in not simply virally spreading ideas—but inspiring people to act?

From Gandhi's Salt March to the Civil Rights Movement to Obama's groundbreaking 2008 campaign to the youth uprisings of 2011, there are five common threads that run through successful movements. Drawing from his experience as a key member of Obama's online team, as digital strategy consultant who has worked with some of the world's largest organizations, and as a journalist covering movements across the world, Sam Graham-Felsen will explain how movements work through what he calls The Five C's: Conditions, Culture, Courage, Creativity, and Catalysts. What are the economic and political conditions that spark widespread hunger for change? What are the unique elements of culture that lead people to channel their hunger into hope—and ultimately, rebellion? How do the first-movers in these movements summon the courage to act? How do they employ creativity to use new technologies to tell compelling stories, to inspire and organize followers? And how do they take advantage of heavy-handed (often violent) responses that highlight the backwardness of the system they are opposing—how do they turn these moments into catalysts for mass action?