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January 08, 2006

Pacific NW bloggers unite at conference

Political blogging is a passion and a joy for me. Yesterday I had the privilege of a full day onslaught with fellow NW bloggers at a Pacific NW blogging conference in Olympia. Which is, by the way, why I haven't blogged today. I'm trying to catch up with all the stuff I should have been doing yesterday, not to mention some rest.

The conference was sponsored by the NW Progressive Institute,the Progressive Majority for Washington and the Institute for Washington's Future.

You may have noticed the very strong "Washington" theme. That's due to the fact that this conference was mostly for Washington progressive political bloggers. But they were kind enough to invite me to participate. While the conference was a two day shindig, I attended only the Saturday portion.

I've been emailing and linking with most of these folks for the past year. It was genuinely fascinating to get to meet them in person. I felt like I'd stepped behind the scenes...getting to peer into the faces of people whose work and writing I've admired for many months.

The greatest part of the day for me was having the opportunity to meet and talk with David Niewert who writes Orcinus blog (which I've been pronouncing wrong in my head. It's or-SIGN-us). Dave's work in outing white supremacists and skinheads is some of the most important writing in the blogosphere. He's a wonderful writer and not surprisingly quite a lovely man in person.

I also believe I may have made a friend for life in David Goldstein. David was exactly the way he is on his blog: mouthy, witty and rabble rousing. It was probably a mistake for the facilitators not to break us up when we sat together. We definitely brought out the smart ass in one another and probably exasperated the people who were running the conference.

Which brings me to Lynn Allen and Jon Stahl of Evergreen Politics. Lynn and John did a bang up job of keeping the peace and the pace. It can't be easy to herd a bunch of inherently anti-establishment bloggers. But Lynn's soft touch and Jon's stupid Buddhist bell did the trick perfectly. A special thanks as well to Andrew of the NW Progressive Institute, who worked hard to organize everything.

I also met "N" of Peace Tree Farm, who turned out to be just like I'd pictured him: always with a smile. Darryl of Hominid Views and Natasha of Pacific Views were incredibly interesting and especially kind. Darryl had such nice things to say about PK...I think I actually blushed.

Dan of On The Road to 2008 even let me pick his techy brain for awhile. I'm so terribly challenged when it comes to the technology end of blogging. Dan was nice enough to indulge me and offer his help.

There are many others who I talked with and enjoyed immensely. About 30 folks in all, I think. This creative, energetic and passionate group inspired me so much. It's amazing that none of these folks are paid for their time and efforts. But they believe so strongly in what they're doing that they'll take time away from family to work for political change.

I hope that progressive bloggers in Oregon can learn from their efforts and put together a similar conference.

I'm also honored that the Washington folks included me and Preemptive Karma in their efforts.

Posted by Carla at January 8, 2006 05:13 PM