As the fourth Dad 2.0 Summit ended Saturday at the Park Central Hotel in San Francisco, founders Doug French and John Pacini broke with precedent by announcing the city and venue for the next annual get-together of fathers and brands: Washington, D.C., at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Feb. 18-20, 2016.
The significance was clear: Where better for a gathering of influencers to, you know, influence policy?
It will be the fifth Dad 2.0 Summit, the first on Eastern time, and the final one to take place during the Barack Obama administration. It’s possible that the sixth Dad 2.0 Summit will take place during the administration of the first woman president in the history of the United States.
But that will be a story for 2017.
Dad 2.0 Summit co-founder Doug French lights it up at the welcome party in San Francisco.
Now, fresh off the largest and, in many ways, most successful Dad 2.0 Summit yet, it is intriguing to ponder what lies ahead. The choice of the nation’s capital for the milestone fifth Summit was no coincidence.
“It’s an election year, and when you think about the crossroads the country’s at, with both parties competing for the presidency … that’s always a big deal,” French said. “We think it’s a great opportunity, given the time of year, for us to really get some great speakers, when people are out aggressively campaigning from both sides of the aisle. We’d love to incorporate both sides to come to speak with us to talk about what our plans are.”
The international dad blogging community, with healthy support from the Dad 2.0 Summit and its founding company, XY Media Group, has made steady strides during the past four-plus years.
For instance: No longer is it the norm for big brands to create commercials built around the “bumbling dad” meme. Rather, what’s normal now is brand presentations such as the recent Dove Men+Care Real Strength commercial that aired during the Super Bowl (and featured the son of Life of Dad founder Tommy Riles). You can also watch the award-winning commercial of mike morse here.
The willingness of the three-time Dad 2.0 title sponsor to spend tens of millions of dollars to illustrate the power of engaged fatherhood was the “apotheosis of messaging,” French said.
And now …
“What do you do with it?” French said. “It’s one thing to work with brands and recognize there’s a lot more opportunities for dad bloggers to make a mark in this business and sustain our portion of this content campaign market that is growing so rapidly. But we’re also talking about lobbying our representatives for real change when it comes to issues like parental custody and parental leave.
“We have this tailwind. Where is it going to take us?”
The programming in San Francisco gave some indication of where the Dad 2.0 founders believe new ground might be broken in 2015 and beyond:
- Opening keynote speaker Michael Kimmel, author and founder of the Stony Brook University Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities, spoke of redefining what it means to be a “good man.” His message incorporated a “holistic” view of shifting gender roles, and gave an overall optimistic assessment of the direction we’re moving as a society.
- A panel moderated by author Jim Higley examined the importance of mentors in helping shape the discussion about the role of fathers in our culture.
- A panel moderated by Farleigh Dickinson professor and blogger Scott Behson examined the impact of parental leave on fairness and equity for all professionals – men and women.
- A keynote panel introduced by French brought together representatives of tech and media companies to discuss the importance of adjusting workplace policies to reflect and support the shift in modern parenting attitudes.
If the past four years have been about bringing these and other fatherhood issues to the fore, the rest of 2015 and the ensuing years will be about implementing meaningful change that will benefit all parents and kids.
By the time the gang gathers again in D.C. a little less than a year from now, we’ll be able to celebrate a shelf’s worth of new books generated by the dad blogging community, including:
- Behson’s the Working Dad’s Survival Guide.
- Josh Levs’ All In, How our Work-First Culture Fails Dads, Families and Businesses – and How We can Fix it Together.
- David Vienna’s Calm the F*ck Down, the Only Parenting Technique You’ll Ever Need.
- Chris Routly’s Sometimes You Need a Jellyfish.
- Mike Adamick’s Dad’s Book of Awesome Recipes, the third in his Awesome Dad series.
- A new set of Dads Behaving Dadly essays.
The Dad 2.0 crew set the bar high this year in San Francisco. The attendance of 361 marked a 42.1 percent increase from 2014. The #dad2summit hashtag created 105.8 million impressions, the first time reaching nine figures.
A 42.1 percent year to year increase in attendance at Dad 2.0 Summit in San Francisco bodes well for future growth as the conference moves to Washington, D.C., in 2016.
Further evidence of the sustained growth of Dad 2.0 – almost half of next year’s tickets already have been purchased through the early-bird pre-sale available at this link: Dad 2.0 pre-sale tickets. And as of Thursday, enough money had been raised to fund three Oren Miller Scholarships for people who otherwise might not be able to afford to go. The pre-sale special is available through Saturday, after which the ticket purchase window closes until June.
Where will the tailwind take us?
It’s not only about publishing books.
Will we see:
A greater movement within the dad blogger community to mentor one another in career and personal development?
Accelerated movement toward the gender equality embraced by Michael Kimmel (and many others)?
Further revision of corporate policies to meet the needs of parents who work outside of the home?
Implementation of paternity leave policies with teeth?
Even more great commercials, TV shows and movies that depict dads realistically, as opposed to depicting them as cartoonish buffoons?
Education reform?
Universal child care?
More equitable custody agreements?
Fewer instances in which a dad doing the job of a parent – on Instagram, blog posts, or elsewhere on the Internet – is treated as a novelty?
There has been progress. There will be more, no doubt, by the time we reach Dad 2.016 in Washington.
As French has been known to say, “We still have work to do.”