I didn't make it last year so this was my first pass. It was terrific and special thanks go to all the folks who worked very hard to make it happen - including handling the major last minute snafus.
I offer what were highlights for me and opportunities for next year.
THE GOOD
There were a lot of good things but here were the standouts to me.
- The presidential forum and breakouts.
Having a lively exchange made it exciting and the breakouts provided an opportunity for more substance. (The one downer is that global warming went without even a mention. If we don't have it in this audience we're never going to get anywhere. To Edwards' credit he made several mentions unprompted in the breakout.)
- Teamsters.
Already diaried here by Shockwave, the rally with the Teamsters was a great bridge-building step. I appreciated A Siegel's concerns raised in the blogger's brunch regarding labor not being on the right side of the climate crisis but Markos and others are on the mark that we need to work towards common ground recognizing that we have common ground to work on and room for improvement. And it starts by building those relationships.
- Faith service.
I didn't attend but I really liked that it happened. This is an important part of many people's lives (including mine) and it enriches our community. Thank you Pastor Dan.
- Global Warming Politics session.
It was packed - 200 or so. That was heartening and the discussion was good. Time is of the essense and I hope the blog community becomes more engaged.
- Gravel.
This is spurious. But he was so badly out of sync in his comments at the Teamsters rally - how can you start with proposing the most regressive taxation alternative to the most progressive community in the country? - that he provided comic relief.
OPPORTUNITIES IN '09'08
Things that would be great to see
- Open Space discussion
The blogosphere is about open discussion and open source strategies. We can put that into action by using open space facilitation in select sessions. What is open space facilitation you ask? Basically it is a way for a large group to use self-organizing techniques to discuss and act on difficult questions. I saw it for the first time when participating with ~75 people. Remarkably valuable approach. And yes, Markos' point that we need to ourselves do what we recommend. But this type of technique, which is best with professional facilitation and requires a larger than usual time block, could be used for a strategic topic and is probably best arranged by the leadership.
- Working sessions.
I did not attend any workshop so I may be speaking from ignorance but perhaps we should consider working sessions based on concrete projects which are ongoing or launched here - such as specific movement building or alliance oriented efforts which could engage a broad segment of the blogosphere. This could be done with the relevant allies participating. An open space facilitation variant could possibly be used. This is especially true for 08 when we'll be in the middle of the election.
- Recycling
We really need to walk the walk. It was great that veggie and vegan food was available. That's really important. However, recycling bins were no where to be seen and the lunch containers could be either recycled or compostable.
- More on online to offline organizing
Yea, I know - I should organize it. Stay tuned.