What Happens at the AMC?

The Allied Media Conference is a community-designed event relying on the brilliance of the Allied Media Projects Network to facilitate dynamic and engaging content from June 30th-July 3rd online and in Detroit. The conference explores two overarching  themes: media for liberation and visionary organizing. 

Through an open proposal process in the summer, we select focus areas that provide a deeper dive into the two main themes of the conference. These focus areas take the form of Tracks and Network Gatherings (T/NGs). Each T/NG is coordinated by a team of at least three people. These teams envision, curate and raise resources to support the tracks and network gatherings for each AMC.

A Track is a series of sessions connected by a shared theme a Network Gathering is a mini-conference convened by a local or national network. A Network Gathering is an opportunity to convene a network for focused work and strategy-development alongside the AMC. A typical Network Gathering is between 20 and 75 people, however, some are larger.

Through a call for session proposals in the winter, the AMC collaborates with T/NG Coordinators to select the hundreds of sessions participants will experience over the course of the AMC weekend. 

Types of AMC Sessions

  • Hands-on workshop: a session that engages multiple senses in the learning process and allows participants to construct their own knowledge. Presenters may use a mixture of: direct instruction, discussion, small group work, multimedia sharing, games, and making things! 
  • Meet-ups: a focused discussion amongst a specific group with a shared identity or interest 
  • Strategy session: a gathering of collective brain power around hard questions that generate possible solutions and clear next steps
  • Panel: featuring three or more presenters and a strong moderator/facilitator sharing critical knowledge and expertise on a given topic, ideally with ample Q&A time with participants
  • Film screening or performance: a session that shares a piece of media or performance and provides an opportunity for participants to ask questions during or afterwards.
  • Plenaries: a lecture or panel presented each morning for a large audience of AMC participants, featuring critical conversations with some of our network’s most dynamic media-based organizers

AMC@NIGHT

At the AMC, we take celebration seriously. We believe that relationships begin in workshops during the day, but they are solidified on the dancefloor and in other community-building spaces at night. AMC@NIGHT is a 3-night festival showcasing visual artists, filmmakers, and performing artists working at the intersection of art and social change.