In just one week, Matt and I will be on a train headed to Washington D.C. for one of the best national conventions focusing on being the best dad you can be. That’s right, the 17th Annual At-home Dads Convention! All of the pieces are finally in place so you should start making your plans to attend.
Here’s our three top reasons to attend the convention:
The People
The reason we are returning for our 4th visit to the annual convention is because the heart & soul of this intimate conference (attendance hovers at around 70) are the amazing dads from across the country (usually 15 – 20 states represented) that come to share their experiences, learn from each other, hang out, drink lots of beer, and make connections that continue on for years.
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| 2011 Convention Group Photo |
The Talent
In the past, the at-home dad convention has been graced with LEGENDS in the world of fatherhood – names like Rebel Dad (Brian Reid), Dr. Aaron Rochlen (research expert), and Jeremy Adam Smith (author of The Daddy Shift) just too name a few.
If you’ve been keeping tabs, you’d know that Dr. Brad Harrington was just announced as the Lunch key-note speaker – Amazing! Harrington is the Executive Director of Boston College Center for Work & Family & Lead author of 3 studies on fatherhood, The New Dad, including one on at-home dads released in June 2012. We can’t wait to meet him! We also look forward to meeting Jeremy Hilton – you may recognize him because he was the first male to win Military Spouse of the Year for 2012!
Moving the Conversation Forward
There are some thought-provoking, educational, and powerful workshops & panel discussions planned each year at the conference. We always leave the weekend jazzed about using some of the things we learned to better master our craft of fatherhood. Fortunately, Matt and I will have the opportunity to be speaking on a panel discussion.
Are you at home because you got laid off? Is being at home emasculating? Do the moms on the playground hit on you? Doesn’t your wife do all the real work anyway? For too long, these are the questions at-home dads get asked by the media and they don’t allow us the opportunity to represent ourselves as the caring, competent, and confident dads we know we are. Join some of the loudest voices in the world of dads to discuss how we can work with the media and marketing companies to change the way dads are portrayed in the news, in TV and film, and in advertisements.
Moderator: Matt Schneider (NYC Dads Group)
Panelists: David Worford (former newspaper reporter & frequent writer about fatherhood), Matt Peregoy (aka: the Real Matt Daddy), Chris Routly (aka: Daddy Doctrines & spark plug in the Huggies debacle), Lance Somerfeld (NYC Dads Group)
We’ll discuss some juicy questions like:
1. How have dads at home been portrayed in ads, TV and film over the years?
2. Where are we now? What have your recent experiences been? How has that changed over time?
3. We still get asked some ridiculous questions? How do you answer?
Are you at home because you got laid off?
Is being at home emasculating?
Do the moms on the playground hit on you?
Doesn’t your wife do all the real work anyway?
4. There are many new TV shows out this season that focus on dads? Any of them hitting the mark? What are they missing?
5. Some Advertisers/Marketers seem to be receptive to dad as a consumer/influence? How is this changing advertising? What are you doing to encourage new thinking?
Bottom-Line: You still have one week to make plans to get your but out to Washington DC for the 17th annual at-home dads convention. All details about the convention can be found here: http://www.athomedadconvention.com/
Finally, if you’re unable to join us at the conference, then you should make it a priority to follow us on TWITTER as we’ll be tweeting all weekend. Follow us here: @NYCDadsGroup or on FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/NYCDadsGroup
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