Someone has to get the ball rolling. Please
follow
up with your thoughts.
The conference was just one step toward
advancing
the work of young progressives, but I was
pretty
happy with it -- especially because I was so
impressed with the young people who attended.
You
were impressive on paper -- with a remarkable
series of achievements -- and even more
impressive
and inspiring in person.
I'm grateful to our outstanding speakers for
doing
such a great job. It was great to see a bunch
of
my friends from past work, and also especially
cool to meet one of my favorite musicians, Ted
Leo. Also to reconnect with Ian McKaye from
Fugazi
-- and to be able to put together a program
that
included those guys, David Rees, Adonal Foyle,
Shleby Knox, Carol Browner, Dee Dee Myers,
Paul
Begala, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Tom Frank,
Susan
Rice, Ezra Klein, Heather McGhee, John Lewis,
Bill
Clinton, etc. Like the great Matt Bors backdrop
we
used, this conference, to some extent, broke
the
mold for DC conferences.
I'm also grateful to all our colleagues at the
Center for American Progress for helping out
in
multiple ways. Our outside conference team --
Stew
Harris, Sean Kennedy, and, especially Peggy
Cusack
-- was amazing.
The second day programs we did -- a full day
for
student journalists from our supported
publications, a Sudan lobby day, a lunch on
money
and politics with Adonal -- were also very
solid.
Now, I can't really enjoy myself if one person
in
the room is unhappy or dubious. So we really
want
your input.
What do you all think -- what was good and
what
wasn't so good? What do you want out of the
conference next year? If we can't expand the
size
of the conference next year beyond 650
students,
how should we select those students? What
speakers
would you like to see? More speeches? More
issue
panels? More skills trainings? What issues?
What
skills? Should we reduce the number of panels
and
have more student-to-student programs? Should
we
partner with other groups for trainings that
go
beyond the Center's focus on policy, message,
media?
Following the 1st Campus Progress National Student Conference and a convention in my home state, I'm just starting to recover. DC is something else. And this Conference is something else. I met so many people who have done and are doing work all across this country that is great. And I met even more with plans in the works to do even better work.
I finally met, in person, friends like Asheesh and Ezra. I made new friends. I missed some people that I would like to have met (with 600 people, it would be near-impossible to catch them all). What can you do?
Still, I'm incredibly impressed by how the whole event came off. If you only watch one video of the conference, make sure you check out the opening panel on the battle of ideas. The panelists did a great job. If you watch another, watch the one on economic policy. I'm looking forward to downloading the videos of the panels I couldn't be at.
At this point, though, now that we've had an opportunity to look back, what would you want done differently? The greatest thing about blogs is that they allow for the dialogue, so, please, jump in and tell the folks at the Center what you would want to see done differently next year.
Talking to others, I can say that one of the frequent complaints was that there wasn't enough...time. The day we had was packed, fun, emotional, and exhausting. But we've got hundreds and thousands of young leaders across this country seeking skills and education to go out and do good work. One day was not enough.
One of my other concerns was that the skill trainings were all related to communications. All four were great and loaded with excellent panelists, but where were the basics of campus organizing, the Student Government Elections 101, or the live version of Nico Pitney's guide to quick, dirty, and great research.
These are some of my thoughts and thoughts I heard from others I met with.
What are yours?
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!
up with your thoughts.
The conference was just one step toward advancing
the work of young progressives, but I was pretty
happy with it -- especially because I was so
impressed with the young people who attended. You
were impressive on paper -- with a remarkable
series of achievements -- and even more impressive
and inspiring in person.
I'm grateful to our outstanding speakers for doing
such a great job. It was great to see a bunch of
my friends from past work, and also especially
cool to meet one of my favorite musicians, Ted
Leo. Also to reconnect with Ian McKaye from Fugazi
-- and to be able to put together a program that
included those guys, David Rees, Adonal Foyle,
Shleby Knox, Carol Browner, Dee Dee Myers, Paul
Begala, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Tom Frank, Susan
Rice, Ezra Klein, Heather McGhee, John Lewis, Bill
Clinton, etc. Like the great Matt Bors backdrop we
used, this conference, to some extent, broke the
mold for DC conferences.
I'm also grateful to all our colleagues at the
Center for American Progress for helping out in
multiple ways. Our outside conference team -- Stew
Harris, Sean Kennedy, and, especially Peggy Cusack
-- was amazing.
The second day programs we did -- a full day for
student journalists from our supported
publications, a Sudan lobby day, a lunch on money
and politics with Adonal -- were also very
solid.
Now, I can't really enjoy myself if one person in
the room is unhappy or dubious. So we really want
your input.
What do you all think -- what was good and what
wasn't so good? What do you want out of the
conference next year? If we can't expand the size
of the conference next year beyond 650 students,
how should we select those students? What speakers
would you like to see? More speeches? More issue
panels? More skills trainings? What issues? What
skills? Should we reduce the number of panels and
have more student-to-student programs? Should we
partner with other groups for trainings that go
beyond the Center's focus on policy, message,
media?