Some of the issues discussed included:

– Who do you invite? Is the conference aimed at the younger generation? What do we want people to walk away with? Should we bring other interested parties that are not U.S.-centric into this conversation?

– Identify CEOs of companies that are already doing a form of diplomacy who just don’t realize it. (Keith Reinhard’s Business for Diplomatic Action would be a logical group to collaborate with.)

– Invite some of the established community that has been working on public diplomacy initiatives, such as Harriet Fulbright, wife of the late Sen. J. William Fulbright.

– Seek out entrepreneurs. If you’re able to back it up with $, that would help generate interest too. (The Ansari X Prize held a contest with a $10 million prize to build a private spaceship, which led to the investment of $100 million.)

– Bring in people in the community of interest ahead of time to help generate new ideas before the conference even starts.

– Celebrities will be part of the conference to help attract interest and press. That may include a benefit concert.

– We should take advantage of non-commercial films by students and people living in other countries. Invite representatives from Sundance and other student film festivals.

– Create an iDiplomacy game before the conference to use it as a mechanism to get ideas and feedback. We can also use films – high budget and guerrilla, comics, exchange programs, video contests, festivals, books, music and online social networks to further interest. The content can’t just be “peas and carrots” – it has to be something people want to watch – perhaps a film or game highlighting bad foreign faux pas.

– Who should pay for the conference? The private sector should be involved, but what about money from foreign companies/countries?

– Consider allowing companies to sponsor just one aspect of the conference. For example, an organization with particular interest in the Middle East or children could sponsor a segment of the conference that addresses those issues specifically.

– The conference should have a focus and consensus around a positive objective. (For example, the most competitive university in Guatemala has the goal of bringing free market economics to the country.)

– One of the goals should be developing the elements of a national strategy for public diplomacy that incorporates the private sector.

– Discussing intellectual property and other economic issues can draw in public sector participation.

– Deconfliction – we need to make sure we’re not duplicating things that have already been done.

– Have an interagency panel at the conference to look at public diplomacy initiatives and funding, a private sector panel and a congressional panel to address some of the questions of the first two panels.

– Empowering women should be a big part of the agenda. Queen Noor of Jordan has done a variety of things to empower women and NGOs have also done work in places where the government is not.

– After the conference who will own the ideas? What kind of action can people take a week after the conference to stay involved? We need to avoid, “We’re the government, you’re the private sector – we need your help,” statements without explaining where to go and who to call. Consider “adopt a project” where an organization can take responsibility for an initiative.

– Drive traffic to iDiplomacy.org and use it as a base to build on the dialogue before and after the conference.

The second, Ben &  Izzy, was sponsored by Layalina and produced by Rubicon, a Jordanian company. It aired last year during Ramadan throughout the Middle East and North Africa, with funding from the Hewlett Foundation. The cartoon show features two boys, one from Jordan and one from the Middle East, who travel back in time where they meet historical figures and learn about their respective cultures.

“iDiplomacy seeks to empower citizens and the private sector to participate in public diplomacy through direct communication and engagement with foreign publics. iDiplomacy supports American ideals, and often but not necessarily American foreign policy goals.”

The attendees introduced themselves. Here are a few of the comments:

Bert Calland, retired Navy Vice Admiral, now at CACI, says we “Gotta prevent the 5-year-olds from becoming the 15-year-olds that strap on the suicide bomb.”

Duncan MacInnes, State Department, “I won the Cold War… and quickly lost the War on Terror.”

Paula Trimble, DOD, “I looked at the attendance list and thought there weren’t too many dudes at all.”

Jennifer Bryson, Witherspoon Institute (think tank in Princeton, N.J.): looks at media produced by progressive Muslims – both creative and non-fiction. “The content is there, the real problem is the media’s not moving into key target audiences.”

Mark Haselton, Wexford Group International, a CACI subsidiary, quoted Gen. McCrystal: “You can’t kill your way out of the wars that we’re right in now. You have to find a way to change the dialogue.”

It’s going to begin with a welcome from Ben Riley, Principal Deputy, Rapid Fielding, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and chairman of iDiplomacy. Jerome Gary, the moderator of iDiplomacy and chairman of Visionaire Media, is going to be discussing the semantics of public diplomacy.

Warren Wright from Gallup will be discussing perceptions of the United States around the world and Matt Armstrong, blogger of mountainrunner.us, will be presenting the history of public diplomacy. Although there’s good representation from government, not everyone attending has a public diplomacy background — there are screenwriters, (video) gamers, and people from the tech industry in attendance too. 

Duncan MacInnes and Rosa Brooks will be presenting the work being done now by the State and Defense Departments, respectively.

After lunch, James Fowler, author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, with whom we did a Q & A earlier, will be talking about the new media landscape after lunch and then joining Adam Conner from Facebook, Price Floyd from the Defense Department, Josh Klein — a hacker of social systems, computer networks and animal behavior — and Peter Marx from Mattel for a panel discussion of how new technologies and social media can be used as force multipliers.

The day will conclude with a breakout session to discuss projects that leverage new media with the groups reporting back to everyone at the end.

The bio for moderator Jerome Gary is available under “conference information.”