ESPN’s Jemele Hill will moderate the diversity panel

The fifth annual Blogs With Balls, the world's leading sports media conference, will be in Toronto this October, and Outsports will be there! I'll be speaking as part of the panel discussion on diversity in the sports social media world. The diversity panel is a new venture for the event, as Blogs With Balls co-founder Don Povia writes:

When we originally created the conference, we did so with colorblindness – simply trying to find the most prominent bloggers from the most prominent outlets. Waaaay back in 2009 as sports bloggers were just scratching the surface on social media, most of those we reached out to were anonymous or posting under the umbrella of their site’s name or a pen name. One of the great break-throughs with that original Blogs With Balls was the fact that, for the first time, we in the community had actually been in the same room (physical, not chat), and looked each other in the eyes.

ESPN’s Jemele Hill will moderate the diversity panel

The fifth annual Blogs With Balls, the world’s leading sports media conference, will be in Toronto this October, and Outsports will be there! I’ll be speaking as part of the panel discussion on diversity in the sports social media world. The diversity panel is a new venture for the event, as Blogs With Balls co-founder Don Povia writes:

When we originally created the conference, we did so with colorblindness – simply trying to find the most prominent bloggers from the most prominent outlets. Waaaay back in 2009 as sports bloggers were just scratching the surface on social media, most of those we reached out to were anonymous or posting under the umbrella of their site’s name or a pen name. One of the great break-throughs with that original Blogs With Balls was the fact that, for the first time, we in the community had actually been in the same room (physical, not chat), and looked each other in the eyes.

Admittedly, most (but certainly not all) were white males.

And they were probably all (mostly) straight. We’ll certainly fix that this year. Anyone know a great gay bar in Toronto to drag all these straight guys to?

The event takes place in Toronto, Oct. 5-7, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Grab a ticket and come out for the event! The lineup of speakers and attendees is very strong, with folks from SB Nation, ESPN, The Score, Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, Deadspin, Yahoo! Sports and others…

  • Patrick Allen, Fansided
  • George Atallah, Assistant Executive Director of External Affairs, NFLPA
  • Jim Bankoff – CEO of Vox Media (SB Nation)
  • Justin Bassett, Sports redditor
  • Justin Bourne – The Score
  • Will Brinson, CBSSports.com
  • Jason Brough, NBC ProHockeyTalk
  • Keith Clinkscales – President, Shadow Mediaworks
  • Jim DeLorenzo – VP & GM, SI.com
  • Ken Fang – Fang’s Bites
  • Joe Fortenbaugh, National Football Post
  • Elliotte Friedman – CBC / Hockey Night in Canada
  • Andrew Garda – Bleacher Report/FootballGuys.com
  • Mike Halford, NBC ProHockeyTalk
  • Jemele Hill – Writer and personality from ESPN
  • Megan Hueter – Women Talk Sports
  • Trey Kerby – The Score / The Basketball Jones
  • Benjie Levy – EVP & COO, Score Media/The Score
  • Dave Lozo – NHL.com
  • Bill McCandless – VP of Video Programming & Production, Bleacher Report
  • Tas Melas – The Score / The Basketball Jones
  • Chad Mumm – Executive Director, Vox Studios
  • Amy K. Nelson – Host of SB Nation’s Full Nelson
  • Ian Orefice, Video Producer and Program Developer, SI.com
  • Mark Pesavento – VP of Content, USA Today Sports Media Group
  • Barry Petchesky – Deadspin
  • Amanda Rykoff, espnW
  • Jonathan Savage, VP, Marketing and Social Platforms, The Score
  • JE Skeets – The Score / The Basketball Jones
  • Michael Smith – Co-host of ESPN’s Numbers Never Lie
  • Bill Squadron – Bloomberg Sports
  • Michael Tillery – The Starting Five
  • Tyler Tumminia – Senior Vice President, Goldklang Group
  • Lang Whitaker – SLAM / GQ / The Classical
  • Greg Wyshynski – Yahoo! Sports
  • Cyd Zeigler – Outsports.com
  • Josh Zerkle, Bleacher Report
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