Netroots Nation 2011

Cross-posted at Feministe.

When I heard Netroots Nation was going to be in my hometown of Minneapolis this year, I jumped on the chance to register. I totally lucked out, too: I was a student, which took $100 off the registration fee, and had just gotten my tax returns– without which, I probably wouldn’t have been able to justify the cost. As you can imagine, I have been waiting eagerly and impatiently for this weekend for months!

You can see a schedule of the sessions and their descriptions here [PDF]. It was difficult to choose, as so many of them looked interesting and were sure to be helpful, but I was extremely happy with each of the session I attended. Highlights of some of the panels I attended:

Video of the Day - They Say They Want Our America Back

I promise to write something more substantial soon, but until then, here's a song by Jill Solbule, performed on the last day of Netroots.  Needless to say, it was a hit!

Breitbart's bewildering Netroots cameo, and some pictures

To his credit, I really don't understand why the only thing that reporter could think to ask about was a cocaine habit, repeatedly, even after he already answered pretty definitively.

More about the cocaine!  And prostitutes...?  Of all the things to ask Breitbart about, mid-lefty-conference-infiltration!

But seriously, hilarious.  You can hear my narrating a bit and giggling intermittently in the second video.

And here are some photos:

Breitbart, of course

First panel about messaging (will expand soon)

More about messaging, with Darcy Burner

View of the city from the Convention Center
courtyard

Settlers of Catan table

Joe Bodell from Minnesota Progressive Project
with Eric Pusey and other state-specific bloggers

I met these folks at the bar during lunch.
They came from Right Online, the conservative
conference across the street.
"They look so normal!"

I do not remember why I took this picture.

Me and @DAbitty, a Tweep I met
for the first time at Netroots

Breitbart pointlessly infiltrates Netroots Nation -- UPDATED

"I really need some attention, guys!!"

During the lunch break, I headed over to the Newsroom for a bite and a beer, and found myself sitting next to a couple Right Online attendees.  They were pretty nice folks, and we chatted for a bit.  They told me Andrew Breitbart was at Right Online, which intrigued me, but I wasn't about to try and infiltrate the Hilton to go find the dude, so I let it go.  But, as luck would have it, as I arrived back at the Convention Center, I ran into Amanda Marcotte, who told me Breitbart had just showed up at Netroots!  Pardon?!  What in the hell was Breitbart trying to do?  I naturally, I joined the crowd of angry Breitbart haters with cameras and followed the entourage.  Once I get home, I'll upload the video.  It was just... well, it was really fucking funny.  He complained about how he wasn't allowed into the exhibition hall, to which we all replied "pay for it like the rest of us did, asshole!"  ...or some variation thereof.  Eric Pusey of The Minnesota Progressive Project mentioned that Breitbart was here because he was concerned about potential troublemakers infiltrating the Right Online conference (check out MPP editor Eric Bodell's take on it here).  How he thought doing exactly the same thing to Netroots was appropriate, I don't know, but there he was.

I'm still laughing my ass off over here.  That was just a riot.

Update: here's the whole story with some background info, by Sue Wilson, who I just met while waiting in line to get a (free!!) beer.

Netroots Nation - Settlers of Catan!

Over in the Daily Kos blogger lounge, there are a group of people playing one of my favorite games, Settlers of Catan:

They let me take their picture, and it turns out the guy on the left, Scott Keyes, recently wrote about the game for The Atlantic.  Check it out!  You may also be interested in a long, rambling post I wrote about the game, and its parallels to capitalism... which I frustratingly cannot find at the moment.

Netroots Nation!

Bright and early tomorrow morning, Jesse and I will be headed downtown to the Convention Center in Minneapolis for Netroots Nation.  Needless to say, I'm pretty excited.  Plenty of my favorite progressive bloggers, writers, and activists will be there, and there are going to be some fabulous after parties.  Like any good progressive, I'll be live-Tweeting it, so follow @AprilStreich and maybe @ethecofem for updates, and keep an eye out for some blog posts summarizing the event here, and on Feministe.

Now, I'm off to bed, since although I thankfully got the next two days off of my new job, I still have to get up really, really, really early.