The OpEd Project invites you to participate in an innovative program to expand the range of voices we hear from in the world and to increase the volume of women thought leaders in the public sphere.
REGISTER HERE!
Date: Saturday, November 13, 2010
Time: 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
Location: 1000 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC
Cost: $300 early registration (by November 3), $395 regular registration
See our “pay in words” scholarship policy
Own Your Expertise – Speak Your Mind – Write to Change the World
This seminar is about more than writing: it’s about making a bold case for what you believe in and making a difference in the world.
Why this matters: Our position is not that women need our help, but just the opposite: we think public debate needs women. Our national conversation currently reproduces the voices and opinions of only a small fraction of society: mostly white, privileged and overwhelmingly (85%) male. Worse among academics: a 2008 Rutgers University study found that 97% of op-eds by scholars in the Wall Street Journal are written by men. What is the cost to society when half of the nation’s best minds and best ideas – women’s minds and women’s ideas – are missing?
The nation’s key opinion forums feed all other media and drive thought leadership in America. The op-ed pages and commentary forums of major media outlets – whether print, online, or broadcast – are followed by diplomats, business people, scholars, and those in the highest levels of government. They can sway public opinion and change the world. And these forums are open to all of us – including those without publishing experience.
About the seminar: This highly interactive, energetic day-long seminar (which also grants one year of ongoing access to our national network of high-level media mentors) is designed to provoke and cultivate thought leadership by making participants aware of their potential impact on the world. It will push you to think more carefully and expansively about your knowledge and experience and how to communicate it to make a difference. We will explore the source of credibility and how to establish it; the patterns and elements of a powerful argument; the difference between being “right” and being effective; how to preach beyond the choir; and how to think bigger about what you know—to have more influence and impact. Participants will emerge with a greater sense of the value of their expertise to others, with a draft (or in some cases complete) op-ed in hand, and with access to a powerful mentoring network.
The impact: Participants have published pieces in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Salon.com, Huffington Post home page, and also one piece that was #2 on Google news and had 20,000 hits in the first hour.
As a result of their op-eds, participants have also appeared on national and international TV and radio, become national spokeswomen in their fields with regular spots on network television and regular speaking gigs, received funding and invitations to apply for prestigious academic fellowships, briefed Congress, received financial backing from funders and individual donations for their organizations, been admitted to graduate schools, and received book contracts.
This seminar is geared toward women and is capped at 20 people. It is equally suitable for those with and without publishing and professional writing experience. The OpEd Project—featured by The New York Times, Katie Couric and The San Francisco Chronicle—is an initiative to expand and enrich public debate and to increase the number of women in thought leadership positions to a tipping point. Working with universities, think tanks, non-profits, corporations and community leaders across the nation, we target and train top women experts in all fields to write op-eds, connect them with each other and with our network of mentor-editors, and channel them to media gatekeepers in print, online, television, radio, and more.
The OpEd Project has worked with universities such as Stanford, Harvard, UCSF and Yale; think tanks and non-profits including the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and The Global Fund for Women; Fortune 500 media and finance companies; and community groups across the nation, including social entrepreneurs in New Orleans, and a women’s prison re-entry program.
Interested? Register here
Questions? Contact Alyssa Best at alyssa@theopedproject.org
More information here.
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