Today is the last Friday before the Dad 2.0 Summit, and we are excited. Super excited. We know you are, too. We can see it in your tweets. In fact, your social shares are already creating quite the buzz, and people are noticing. The voice of modern fatherhood is stronger and more active than ever, and every time you put your message onto these Internets you are shifting perceptions, making impressions, and challenging the status quo of what it means to be a dad. Cat videos wish they had that kind of impact.
One of the best ways to help us to track the progress being made, not to mention all of the potential brand-related opportunities that you can create for yourself and the community, is by using the correct hashtags of the #Dad2Summit and our official sponsors on all of the appropriate social shares. Here is the current list of conference hashtags, and we encourage you to use them as generously as decorum dictates.
Speaking of the Internet, did you happen to catch Dad 2.0 Summit co-founders Doug French and John Pacini on the Life of Dad chat? They spoke with Tom Riles and Chris Read about attending Dad 2.0 and answered several questions that you may find helpful and/or entertaining.
And as if there hasn’t been enough awesomeness announced lately, our good friends at Mom 2.0 Summit shared some wonderful news this week; namely, if you have attended a Dad 2.0 Summit (and/or attending Dad 2.015 next week) then you are officially considered part of the New Media Council (which also includes all Mom 2.0 attendees). That means you are eligible to nominate individuals for the Iris Awards and to vote for the Iris Awards recipients. What are the Iris Awards? This: “The Iris Awards honor the parent blogging community and its body of work throughout the year. The Awards recognize the finest expressions in art, commentary, commerce, philanthropy, ideas and connections, all the while celebrating the emerging industry created by its pioneers and leaders.” (from TheIrisAwards.com)
Take advantage of your seat on the New Media Council and nominate, vote, and celebrate the amazing work from our online parenting community.
But that’s not all, would you believe there was other news about dads during the past week? There was, and much of it was about paternity leave:
- New America’s Jane Greenway Carr wrote an article called “Papa Does Preach—and He Also Changes Diapers” about the ongoing changes in paternity leave for modern men. In it she states, “What we’re seeing is the rise of dad.” That’s you.
- Matthew Yglesias shares a story on Vox arguing that “parental leave is too important to leave up to employers,” and that it “is a social responsibility.”
- The Telegraph‘s Steven Swinford reports that Ed Miliband and the Labour Party are pushing for a full month of paid paternity leave for new fathers at nearly twice the current rate. “The Labour leader wants to increase the amount of time men spend with their newborns from the current two weeks so they can enjoy more of the first “crucial” days of their child’s lives.”
- The headline of Rachel Bertsche’s article on Yahoo! Parenting is “How a Family Can Improve a Dad’s Career” and one of the working dads she speaks with is our own John Pacini.
- CBS News tells us that stay-at-home dads are putting kids before careers, and they give a shout to Dad 2.0 Summit title sponsor Dove Men+Care’s #RealStrength campaign as well as a quote from Al Watts, president of the National At-Home-Dad Network (a Dad 2.0 Summit cause partner).
In closing, we have talked a lot about the recent trend of dad-centered ads and the amazing show of emotions that so many of them share, and this week we discovered another one; however this commercial didn’t run during the Super Bowl. It is from MetLife and it was marketed throughout Asia, but it certainly would have fit right in during the Big Game. Watch it, dry your eyes, and enjoy your weekend. We’ll see you in a few days!