Last week, we announced the first-ever Netroots Minnesota, two days of panels, keynotes, training sessions, and networking opportunities for progressives to come together to strategize and organize around progressive change in Minnesota.
The Washington Times (a.ka. Fox News in print) took notice and griped about our efforts to give regular folks a chance to engage more deeply on the topics that matter most to them:
Progressives have announced plans for a social-media offensive, geared to "our new reality", says Xavier Lopez-Ayala of the Alliance for a Better Minnesota. The progressive group is one of several across the country that are honing the Twittering, blogging, videography and advocacy prowess of grass-roots types to "further change" as 2010 approaches.
Uh-oh. There’s that old "c" word, Mr. Obama’s onetime mantra. Progressives are hot to Tweet, and they still recall the Web-based victories of Howard Dean well over 100 years ago. Wait. It was 2004. It only seems like a century ago.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lopez-Ayala calls the dicey art of social media "impact journalism." So, Republicans: Log in and get thee to thy Tweet board.
We’ve just started rolling out the agenda for Netroots Minnesota and I’m sure The Washington Times will be thrilled by the panels, training sessions, and issue discussions we have on tap, including:
- New Organizing: A Better Model to Engage Volunteers and Truly Build a Movement
- Tools to Hold Conservatives Accountable
- Federal Health Care Reform – Now or Never
- Blog-a-sota: A Map of Minnesota’s Blogosphere
- …and many, many more!
The last thing the right-wing wants is Netroots Minnesota to be as successful as Netroots Nation in helping progressive influence the public debate. But that’s exactly what Netroots Minnesota is going to be. The conference agenda is designed to get progressives trained on the new tactics that will help us step up our current organizing.
Click here to check out the agenda for Netroots Minnesota.
While the right-wing is busy poking fun of our efforts, progressives will be coming together at Netroots Minnesota to build real change. We hope you’ll be able to join us in St. Paul on November 20-21?.
