“iDiplomacy: empowering the private sector and citizen diplomats in the digital age” is a two-day symposium that will take place at The Gallup Organization in Washington DC on November 9^th & 10^th, 2009.  Participants come from gaming, filmed media, social media, music, tech, the Military, State Department, the Hill and the private sector.  This small, invitation-only symposium will help determine the agenda, host(s), plenary speakers, sponsors and invitees to a much larger conference to take place in 2010 that will be open to the public.

iDiplomacy is not a traditional symposium.  The premise is to get a small group of really bright “out-of-the-box” thinkers from many different “cultures” in the private sector, think tanks and academia together with people from the Defense and State Departments who are in the public diplomacy “trenches”  for two days of creative interdisciplinary work.

The work will largely take place in small breakout sessions of 5 – 8 participants which will discuss 1) how new technologies and social media have transformed the ‘game;’ 2) new multi-platform initiatives that leverage new media; 3) public/private partnerships and 4) the larger conference agenda: the new PD ‘toolbox,’ regional solutions and what the legislative agenda should be to empower the private sector and public/private partnerships.

Symposium participants are expected to attend the entire two-day event.  Members and staffers from the Hill will be invited to “drop in” on relevant sessions.

Participants include:

Joseph Assi is a 22-year-old Palestinian refugee born and raised in a refugee camp in Lebanon.  He was a cast member for “On the Road in America Season II” that followed four young Arabs—two women and two men—on a road trip across America with an American film crew. He is a filmmaker and believes that art is the best form of expression to diplomatically resolve issues. His main interest is the Palestinian refugees’ struggle.

Austin Branch is with the Department of Defense working in Information Operations.

Lenny Brown began his entertainment industry career in film and television. While working as programming executive at HBO, he was a member of the creative team responsible for Everybody Loves Raymond, Martin, Sex and the City, and Spawn. He later moved to Sony Television and ran Forest Whitaker’s TV production company, Spirit Dance Entertainment. Now working in video games at THQ, Brown is tasked with improving the quality of all THQ game fiction, as well as building a library of cool Original IP that can be leveraged as transmedia in multiple media platforms.

Jennifer Bryson has a B.A. in Political Science from Stanford, an M.A. in History from Yale, and a Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic studies from that Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale. Following graduate school Dr. Bryson worked in journalism. After 9/11 she worked in Public Diplomacy at the U.S. embassies in Egypt and Yemen and then managed a counter-terrorism research team for Department of Defense.  Most recently she worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in Support to Public Diplomacy where she was the lead Action Officer for countering ideological support to terrorism.  Currently she is Director of the Islam and Civil Society Project at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, NJ and she writes for ThePublicDiscourse.com.  Her research interests include creative and non-fiction media of progressive Muslims as well as Islamic theology and pluralism.

Bert Calland serves as the CACI executive vice president for Integrated Security and Intelligence Solutions, expanding business within the market for information sharing at the nexus of intelligence, defense, and law enforcement. Prior to CACI, Calland’s 33-year military career as a Navy SEAL included assignments as Commander, Special Warfare Development Group and Commander, Special Operations Command Central where he lead more than 3,000 U.S. and Coalition Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan following the attacks on 9/11. He completed his career as deputy director of the CIA and director for Strategic Operational Planning at the National Counterterrorism Center.

Justin Carroll is the co-founder and executive creative director of Hamagami/Carroll, Inc., a graphic design consultancy in Los Angeles, California. Since 1989 Justin has lead the strategic and creative vision for the company, developing brand identity primarily for video games, entertainment properties and licensed consumer products.  The company’s clients include industry leaders Electronic Arts, Activision, LucasArts, Mattel, Hasbro, 20th Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company. Carroll’s most recent project is the packaging program for Activision’s much anticipated video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Adam Conner is the Washington DC associate manager for privacy and global public policy at Facebook, where he focuses on government and political outreach and directed the company’s 2008 election efforts. In 2009 Politics Magazine named him one of their “Rising Stars,” an award for people 35 or under who have already made a significant mark in political consulting or advocacy.  Prior to opening Facebook’s Washington DC office, Adam was director of online communications for Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Chairwoman of the House Rules Committee. He previously served as deputy director of online communications for Forward Together, the presidential exploratory committee for former Virginia Governor Mark Warner.

Steven Corman is a professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University where he directs the Consortium for Strategic Communication (CSC). The CSC is a strategic initiative consisting of a group of scholars dedicated to improving strategic communication and public diplomacy efforts to fight terrorism and extremism. They were recently awarded a $2.5 million grant from the Office of Naval Research, for which Corman is principal investigator, to study extremist narratives in contested populations. CSC white papers are widely read in diplomatic and military circles and can be found at http://comops.org, along with a blog called COMOPS Journal.

Flint Dille has spent most of his creative and professional life in the game business and film business as a screenwriter, game designer, and novelist. His numerous video game credits include Ghostbusters, Transformers, Fantastic Four and Tomorrow Never Dies. His screenplay credits include the movie An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. Dille has written four interactive novels, five regular novels, graphic novels and comic books. He also is a character in Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300.

Amy Miller Feehery supports CACI’s Integrated Security and Intelligence Solutions through business, process, and strategic development. Feehery previously served as the deputy chief of Operations/Counterterrorism Fellowship program manager at the National Defense University, School for National Security Executive Education. Prior to NDU, she served as a contracted program manager for various government entities where she lead cross-discipline teams in the development of integrated training and exercises focused on terrorism countermeasures, countering WMD, and Interagency and private sector partnerships. Prior to 9/11, Feehery taught at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where she focused lectures on rhetorical analysis, critical thinking and writing, and cultural hegemony.

Bruce Feirstein is a screenwriter and journalist and has been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine since 1994. He is the writer of three James Bond movies and four James Bond video games. His writing has appeared in New York magazine, the New Yorker, Spy, Strategy + Business, and the New York Observer, where he was columnist for 15 years.  In the early 1990’s Feirstein wrote editorials for the New York Times. For the past three years, he was the executive director of the IDG China Media Fund, producing movies for the Chinese domestic audience in Beijing.

Price Floyd is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. He serves as staff advisor and assistant to the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense for public information, internal information and community relations, as well as information training and audiovisual matters in support of DOD activities, leading a worldwide public affairs community of 3,800 military and civilian personnel.  Prior to joining the Defense Department, Mr. Floyd was the Director of External Relations for the Center for New American Security.  Floyd also served at the US Department of State from 1989 until 2007 and brings more than 15 years of communications and diplomatic experience, most recently as the Director of Media Affairs.

Glenn Fogg is the acting director of the USD (AT&L) sponsored Rapid Reaction Technology Office. He interacts and coordinates with Department of Defense commands and organizations; other government agencies; academia; and industry to identify technologies and evolving trends to address combating terrorism and irregular warfare operations. Since joining the Rapid Reaction Technology Office in 2004, Fogg has been part of the office’s expansion to include oversight of biometrics and forensics technologies, vetting rapid solutions to validated Combatant Commander needs and the establishment of a cell that employs non-traditional approaches to develop meaningful products from companies that do not typically work with the Department of Defense.

Kevin Gates currently works as Professional Staff Member in the House Armed Services Committee. Prior to his current post, was formerly an Advisory Security Analyst for Strategic Analysis Inc for 8 years. He was an active participant in a report issued by the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 2004 called ‘Transition to and from Hostilities’ where a task force was set up to make recommendations for enhancing US effectiveness across the spectrum of activities from peacetime to stabilization and reconstruction.  The report highlights the significant challenges that are required for effective planning and preparations for stabilization and reconstructions operations that the US has encountered in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Julie Barko Germany is the principal author and editor of several publications, including Constituent Relationship Management for State Legislators, Best Practices for Political Advertising Online, Constituent Relationship Management: The New Little Black Book of Politics, Person-to-Person-to-Person: Harnessing the Political Power of Online Social Networks and User-Generated Content, The Politics-to-Go-Handbook: A Guide to Using Mobile Technology in Politics and The Political Consultants’ Online Fundraising Primer. She also co-authored Putting Online Influentials to Work for Your Campaign. She has appeared on MSNBC, C-SPAN, Fox News, CBS and NBC. In 2008 Germany was named a Rising Star by Campaigns and Elections’ Politics Magazine.

Emily Goldman is deputy director for Interagency Coordination, Office of Communication at U.S. Central Command. From 2007 to 2008 she was strategic communication advisor in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism in the Department of State with responsibilities for strategic communication and development of a long-term strategy for counterterrorism. She previously served as assistant to the principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and as associate director, Support to Public Diplomacy, in the Department of Defense. Goldman joined the faculty of the University of California Davis in 1989 and was associate professor of political science until 2008.

Ron Goldstein is the former president and CEO of Verve Music Group. He has held numerous executive positions in the music industry, including president of The GRP Recording Company. He also was president and CEO of Private Music during which time he oversaw the breakthrough of Yanni and expanded the label to include Etta James, Taj Mahal and others. Goldstein previously served as president of Island Records, North America, where he contributed to the success of U2, Grace Jones and others.

Mark Haselton is a retired Special Forces officer who now serves as a senior project manager (Intelligence focused) with the Wexford Group International—a CACI Company. Haselton leads a team of approximately 80 operations and intelligence professionals providing support to select Department of Defense clients. Haselton and his team have extensive experience in both Iraq and Afghanistan and provide advice to a variety of organizations on counter insurgency and countering threat networks that employ improvised explosive devices. Haselton is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and holds a master’s degree from the School of Advanced Military Studies.

Todd Helmus is a behavioral scientist with the RAND Corporation. Dr. Helmus’ research focuses on terrorism and insurgency with a special focus on strategic communication and terrorist radicalization. He has recently written about barriers to the broad dissemination of creative and counter-extremist literary works in the Arab World. He has also worked extensively to understand the factors that promote terrorist radicalization and has recently served a six-month counter-terrorism advisory position under General David Petraeus’ command in Iraq. Hemus’ previous work has focused on improving U.S. military capabilities to earn support of local populations during counterinsurgency missions.

Noessa Higa brings over fifteen years film, video and new media production to Visionaire Media. She has supervised the creative development, production, and launch of multiple web 2.0 social media platforms. Previously, she co-founded Spiritclips.com, a dynamic community website dedicated to sharing inspirational films and stories. Prior to Spiritclips, she served as Director of Physical Production for First Look Studios. Her extensive career includes production work for Oscar-nominated producers at Sony, Disney, and Fox, and other top producers at Revolution, Paramount and Dreamworks. Her film experience includes working with advanced digital technologies and special effects.

Catherine A. Holland is a political theorist trained in the history of political thought, as well as contemporary political thought, in the American and continental traditions. She specializes in critical analysis, and has published in leading journals in political science, political theory, American political development, and feminist theory. Holland’s book, The Body Politic: Foundings, Citizenship, and Difference in the America Political Imagination, examines the development of competing motifs of constitutional citizenship in the United States. She currently works at the Institute for Physical Sciences (IPS). Prior to IPS, Holland taught political theory and feminist theory at the University of Missouri.

Loren Jenkins is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and has been the senior foreign editor at NPR since 1996. Prior to joining NPR Jenkins spent 25 years overseas as a foreign correspondent for UPI, Newsweek, and The Washington Post covering Middle East conflicts, the Vietnam War, and many other major stories. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for his Washington Post coverage of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath. In between his time overseas and position at NPR Jenkins served as publisher and editor-in-chief of his hometown newspaper, The Aspen Times, in Colorado.

Josh Klein has practiced and was trained, both formally and informally, in hacking – social systems, computer networks, institutions, consumer hardware, animal behavior, and, most recently, the publishing industry. When he’s not taking things apart or putting them back together again he speaks, writes, and consults on new and emerging technologies that improve people’s lives – and has tremendous fun doing it. He has given a presentation at TED on training crows to bring me spare change – and how it can serve to better the world. More information on his work can be found at www.josh.is.

Mary Lambert is an acclaimed music video and feature film director. She has more music videos in the Top 100 than any other director. They include Madonna’s most talked-about videos (Borderline, Like a Virgin, Material Girl, La Isla Bonita and Like a Prayer), and videos for superstar performers Janet Jackson, Sting, The Eurythmics, The Pretenders, Chris Isaak,  Motley Crue, Mick Jagger, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey among many others. Her feature credits include Pet Semetary I and II (based on Stephen King’s novel), Siesta and The In Crowd. In 2007 Lambert directed and produced the feature length documentary “14 Women,” about the 14 women U.S. senators in the 109th Congress including her sister, Blanche Lincoln, senior Senator from Arkansas.

Jonathan Lawton is a screenwriter of romantic comedy, action and thriller films and television series. He wrote Pretty Woman, one of the most successful romantic comedies of all time, for which he received Writers Guild of America Award and British Academy Award nominations. He also wrote and executive produced Under Siege and Under Siege 2; wrote and directed Jackson; wrote The Hunted and DOA: Dead or Alive; and co-wrote Mistress, Blankman and Chain Reaction. He created and executive produced the hit television show V.I.P. Lawton’s latest script with South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker is in development.

Michael A. Lipsner is a U.S. Army Special Forces Officer with over eight years as an operator in the Special Operations community. MAJ Lipsner has served primarily with the 1^st Special Forces Group (Airborne) and has two combat tours in Iraq and the Philippines supporting both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy (West Point) and a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University. Lipsner currently serves at the director of Operations Coordination and Planning for the US SOCOM Special Operations Support Team to the Department of Homeland Security.

Peter Marx is vice president of Production and Technology for Mattel, where he handles digital and online experiences for the world’s largest toy company. Previously he managed Analog Protocol, a small consultancy whose clients included Fox, Viacom, Paramount Pictures, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, Qualcomm and others. He was the chief technology officer for Vivendi-Universal Games and vice president of Emerging Technologies for Universal Studios from 2000 to 2005. Prior to that he made video games for Electronic Arts. Marx is an adjunct professor for the Peter Stark Producing Program at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

William (Bill) May is director of the Office of Innovative Engagement (OIE) in the Bureau of International Information Programs, supporting the Department of State’s world-wide public diplomacy efforts. He has been working in the field of public diplomacy for over 25 years. Prior to the creation of OIE, May served as director of the Planning, Budget, and Applied Technology Office at the State Department. He also served as the community relations division chief in the Office of International Visitors. Before joining the State Department, May served in senior management positions in the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau/Voice of America’s Office of Engineering and Technical Operations.

Arturo G. Munoz is a senior political scientist at RAND specializing in counterpropaganda, counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, currently focusing on Afghanistan. He has appeared on PBS Frontline and other U.S. and foreign news networks as a subject matter expert. He joined RAND after a 29 year CIA career as an intelligence analyst and a case officer, conducting operations in the Middle East, North Africa, Southwest Asia, Latin America and the Balkans. He has a History Ph.D. and an Anthropology M.A. and A.B.D. Munoz has lectured at the Army War College and the National Defense University. Recently, he published his first book, Amazigh: The Berbers of Morocco: From Tribalism to Ethnic Nationalism.

John Nee is digital project development advisor at Warner Home Entertainment and strategic consultant for Majesco Entertainment. He has extensive corporate and start up media experience in the publishing, video games and licensing industries. Nee co-founded and was president of WildStorm Productions, an independent comic book publisher before it was acquired by DC Comics, one of the largest American comic and related media companies, in 2002. Nee continued to oversee operations of WildStorm Productions after acquisition and held a number of senior positions at DC Comics, including most recently senior vice president of Business Development from 2007 to 2008.

Pradeep Ramamurthy is the senior director for Global Engagement at the National Security Council. Prior to his current assignment, he was a director on the Homeland Security Council staff, and was the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s first intelligence fellow for homeland security and counterterrorism. He was the PBD briefer to the attorney general and FBI director from 2006 to 2007 and served as the special assistant to the FBI National Security Branch’s first deputy director. Ramamurthy is a past editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Scott Riggs is director of the Joint Strategic Effects Center at the Joint Information Operations Warfare Command (JIOWC). Lieutenant Colonel Riggs previously served as the EUCOM and NATO IO Planner for JIOWC. While a Major, he served as a brigade operations officer, which deployed to Hungary, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Riggs also served in Germany as assistant operations officer and deployed in Bosnia as assistant battalions operations officer. He also served as tank company executive officer in Korea as well as during Desert Storm. Riggs received his bachelor’s degree from Sam Houston State University and associate’s degree from Wentworth Military Academy.

Leon G. Shahabian is vice president and treasurer of Layalina Productions, Inc., a non-profit public diplomacy initiative based in Washington, D.C. He has executive produced both seasons of On the Road in America, a cross-cultural reality series, as well as Life After Death and Windy City, White City. Shahabian is senior editor of The Layalina Review on Public Diplomacy and Arab Media and Perspectives. He is a member of the Public Diplomacy Council, the Senior Information Operations Advisory Council and the Information Operations Institute. Shahabian is fluent in Armenian, Arabic, and French.

Maggie Namkoong Spaloss brings over 20 years experience in new media, entertainment and advertising to Visionaire Media. Previously she served as vice president, Creative Development for WHN Inc., the first internet company to produce branded e-commerce websites for television and cable networks. Prior to WHN, Spaloss served as global business partner to Creative at Disney Consumer Products where she managed the first online catalog of Disney’s artwork for worldwide distribution. Prior to her online work, she worked in advertising design for 13 years. Spaloss graduated from Yale, Magna cum Laude, with a degree in Art.

Tim White is an Emmy Award-winning television journalist and producer with local, national, and international credits. His extensive broadcast experience includes a decade as lead anchor of WKYC TV Cleveland, an NBC affiliate, over a decade as executive producer of the PBS show “Lives & Legacies” and five years as the anchor/producer of WORLDNET, a public diplomacy program seen daily in 107 countries. White spent five years with the State Department’s United States Information Agency serving as executive producer of media. He received a PhD in public communication from the University of Maryland. He also was a Brigadier General in the US Air Force.