Less like “railroad tracks” that would route your interest in a particular direction, tracks at the AMC are more like “animal tracks” that end up crisscrossing each other repeatedly as they travel in unexpected patterns.

See also: full conference schedule.

Since its earliest years, the AMC has brought people together around the idea of “do-it-yourself ” media. That concept has evolved from zines and other print media to include everything from cell-phone hacking to breakdancing. Through the hands-on experience of making media at the AMC, participants walk away with concrete skills and new sense of their own power.

The diversity of the How-To track is its greatest strength. While much of the How-To track is about demystifying digital technologies and making it useful to people who don’t automatically see themselves as media makers, it’s just as much about sharing low-fi media skills like stenciling, zine-making and spoken word.

More than just providing “space” for youth, the AMC is cultivating a new generation of leaders. The Youth Media Track showcases youth-oriented and youth-led content, and offers a space for youth to self-organize a network of ongoing relationships.

The INCITE! W/TPOC Track is a place to build a shared approach to ending violence against women of color through diverse media from blogging and graphic design to zine-making and textile design. With strategy sessions and hands-on workshops, the INCITE! Track provokes critical dialogue about gender and racial violence and the role of online and offline independent media in movement-building. [More info]

The Kids Track makes the conference more accessible to parents with kids and engages kids as full participants in the conference. Kids learn techniques such as how to make and spray paint stencils (safely!), basic print-making and letter-writing as an organizing tool. The Kids Track is made possible through the childcare donations of the AMP community.

Over 50% of AMC participants identify as some form of educator–whether as k-12 educators, professors, parents, or curriculum-builders and workshop leaders in community organizations. The MEM Track nurtures this diversity, bringing people together around the questions of how do people learn best? and how can media transform learning? In every workshop, information is conveyed through the most creative, interactive ways possible, offering useful ideas for any participant to take home and apply to their own work.

At the 2008 AMC, People’s Production House presented the methods and results of their new Digital Expansion Initiative. Their program combines grassroots media-making with participatory research methods and popular education to give everyone a sense of expertise on the telecommunications issues that impact their lives.

The Media Policy Track grew out of the need for new approaches to media policy organizing that would be relevant to grassroots media makers and social justice organizers. The AMC is a place where we make the policy issues concrete. Prometheus Radio Project teaches you to solder a radio transmitter and lobby for more community radio licenses, while others offer workshops in production and journalism. You might learn how to hack a mobile phone to save lives along the US-Mexico border, then how to support this kind of technology by advocating for more unlicensed access to the airwaves. Next, people from rural and urban communities could discuss how to use media production to connect their advocacy.

There are a lot of incredible sessions that don't fall into any of the above tracks. The General Track includes everything from radical art history lessons to strategy sessions about alternative economic models for independent media makers.