Netroots Nation Musings
So I have arrived back home from the big Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas. Since it was the first one I've been to, I thought I'd share some random impressions. Now, I know this sort of thing doesn't appeal to everyone (which is why I didn't even attempt to "liveblog" the conference), because quite frankly if you weren't there then you probably don't want to hear about it. For those readers, I apologize, and swear we'll be right back to normal columns here starting tomorrow. This is also why I posted a column very late yesterday as well, to give you something else to read, just in case this sort of thing bores you.
In any case, these musings are mostly random and presented in no particular order whatsoever. This may be a little confusing.
Which is a good place to start. This wasn't just the first Netroots Nation I've attended, but the first convention of any type. So the entire thing was a new experience, and admittedly somewhat confusing in nature.
We missed the first morning by sleeping in (Vegas is a nine-hour car ride away, in mostly-100-degree weather, and we were exhausted). But once my wife and I got registered, we dove into the proceedings with gusto. The conference consisted of three main segments: an exhibit room filled with tables of an interesting mix of organizations, breakout training sessions and presentations in over a dozen small-to-medium-sized rooms, and major speeches in a huge banquet room that held everybody.
The breakout sessions covered a wide range of topics, and as we had been warned, there was at least once when two or more interesting subjects were being covered at the same time. Luckily there were two of us, so we were able to cover twice the ground, but there still were interesting sessions we had to miss. The selection was large and even the presentations we had to miss sounded very interesting, for the most part. The quality of people speaking at the sessions varied as well, in terms of both experience and knowledge, but at least for most of what I saw, the sessions were top-notch.
The exhibit hall was moderately large, and had tables staffed continuously throughout the conference. Of course, the first table we hit was to get our free "schwag bag" full of all sorts of stuff I have yet to read (conventions are a mad whirl of energy, where you don't have a lot of free time). I do have to single out one organization in the hall, who picked the perfect free gift for the schwag bags, though (at least as far as I am concerned). Working America -- in what even conservatives would have to admit was a politically incorrect (and bold) move for a Lefty convention -- provided us with two Lipton tea bags, which had liberal messages pasted on the packets (sample: "WALL STREET: I AM NOT YOUR ATM") as well as their organization's name. Now, in this political climate, tea (and tea bags) has taken on certain connotations, you might say. It's not even a stretch to say that tea bags are a political statement of sorts. But thankfully, Working America ignored all of that, and provided us with free tea bags for the entire conference.
Being a drinker of tea, and not coffee, I sincerely appreciated this.
The main speakers in the big room were mostly pretty excellent. We did miss seeing Van Jones, but did catch Ed Schultz, who was pretty fire-breathingly hot. There were too many good speakers to even list here (see the Netroots Nation site for the full list, and likely videos of all the speeches, by now), but the headliners on the last day were of particular note. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi addressed us in the morning, complete with a video from President Obama addressing the convention, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spoke in the afternoon, and Senator Al Franken was the keynote speaker in the evening. Pelosi and Reid were question-and-answer segments, whereas Franken gave the closing speech to the whole conference. All were very interesting to hear live.
But, while seeing politicians in the flesh was certainly a thrill, the best thing about the entire experience was meeting others in person who do what I do -- all the bigtime and smalltime bloggers. I met people I've only corresponded with via email, and was able to put a face to their names. I met people who I've never corresponded with, but whose writing I admire and respect. I met several fellow bloggers (and even employees) of The Huffington Post, which was fun just for the "club within a club" aspect (the conference is the brainchild of DailyKos, and the crowd was overwhelmingly Kos-centric, so meeting Huffington Post folks was relatively rare). And I met plenty of people I'd never heard of, but will be checking out online in the near future.
But the most interesting were the people you'd just bump into in a hallway and chat with for a few minutes. I experienced the range of opinion from "center-left" to "left" to "way, way left," which sounds like a joke but was actually very interesting. I'd hear people say of the same speaker "I don't agree with him, but I respect his speaking ability," as well as "I thought his talk fell flat, but I totally agree with his position."
OK, maybe it wasn't all that (to coin a phrase) "fair and balanced." But I'm not kidding, I found the range of opinions on issues and presentation to be fascinating. A conference, after all, is about getting like-minded people together to exchange ideas, and that was (to me) the most interesting part of the whole week.
To facilitate this, with a liberal (so to speak) application of booze, I have to single out the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (or "P-trip" as they liked to call it, assumably for "P-triple-C"), who hosted the best party suite of the week. Actually, they put on a party for two nights running, but we stayed away the second night so we'd have the energy to get up early to catch Pelosi's breakfast address. This gathering was legendary, complete with meeting the strangest of people from the strangest of organizations, as well as more than a few nationally-known bloggers whose names you would likely recognize (sorry, but their names have safely "stayed in Vegas," so don't bother asking).
I'd be lying if I didn't say that it was fun to be recognized as well. [This whole paragraph is going to be written by Chris' Ego, so if you find that sort of thing too saccharine, please skip to the next one... you have been warned.] The first person in the entire conference we talked to was the woman who checked us in and gave us our credentials. She looked at my name and said "Chris Weigant... Chris Weigant... where have I heard that?" I tried a few suggestions ("Friday Talking Points?"), but it turned out she follows me on Twitter. This, I have to say, was kind of stunning, and totally cool. But the best of these "getting recognized" encounters was when I shook hands with the Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, Bill Halter. I had to tell him that I had just given him an award in my column (see: FTP [131]) for being the best Democrat of the week. His response was that he knew, because he had read it. He thanked me for doing so, and I thanked him for being personally responsible for forcing Blanche Lincoln to champion derivatives reform. I have to say, that was a high point of the convention for me.
But the best part of the conference I've saved for last -- meeting Matt Osborne of Osborne Ink fame. Matt had been to Netroots Nation before, so he was invaluable for getting oriented in the chaos of such a large meeting. Matt is way more plugged in to the whole blogging world than I am, so this was appreciated immensely. Time and time again, he steered us in the right direction so we'd have a great time at the convention. While we did run into other people here and there, Matt was the only one we planned on meeting in advance. On the way home from the conference, we both had our share of car troubles as well. All told, though, we'd like to publicly acknowledge Matt for mentoring us and making our week at the big blogger wingding much better than it otherwise would have been.
With the shadow of the 2010 election season hanging over the conference, it was likely not as exciting as previous years have been, when Democrats were riding high on the pendulum of public approval. But the very first "YearlyKos" (as it was called then) was in 2006, before the Democrats took over either house of Congress. The first one was also held in Las Vegas, and we heard from many of the similarities between the two. But even with the damper of facing a tough election, it was great to be among so many like-minded people, all of whom realize that politics isn't a sprint but a marathon at times. The energy was pretty amazing, and the attitudes of most were positive and forward-looking. Next year's Netroots Nation will be held in Minnesota, and we're looking forward to (events willing) attending it next summer. If this year's was any measure, it will be an exciting week.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
