February 2008 Best Practices: Hosting presidential hopefuls 2-year-old blogger con entices 7 of 8 democratic candidates to Chicago forum By Cathy Chatfield-Taylor
Citizen bloggers staged a coup August 4, 2007, when they convened the first Presidential Leadership Forum at McCormick Place in Chicago with seven of the eight Democratic candidates for president. Organized by former high school teacher Gina Cooper and more than 100 volunteers, the second annual YearlyKos convention attracted about 2,000 online activists who are members of the grassroots community now known as Netroots Nation (www.netrootsnation.org).
Braving the liberal forum’s tough questions and feisty audience were candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Christopher Dodd, Former Sen. John Edwards, Former Sen. Mike Gravel, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Bill Richardson. Absent from the fray: Sen. Joe Biden.
“Gina built relationships with their staffs to build trust with the campaigns,” says Nolan Treadway, who directed logistics as a volunteer then joined the Netroots Nation staff in January 2008. “There was trepidation on their part that we weren’t professional. We were a volunteer organization just in our second year.”
Named for the popular left-wing blog, Daily Kos (www.dailykos.com), which is read daily by up to 1 million people, the first convention was held in 2006 in Las Vegas with about 1,500 attendees. Its mission was to gather “people from all walks of life” who use the Internet and blogs to express viewpoints, build consensus and act for change. In 2007, Cooper became executive director with one paid assistant, and the group changed its name to Netroots Nation to more accurately reflect its nonpartisan make-up.
When the 2007 convention organizers invited candidates to participate in the forum, it was with assurances that questions would be fair and balanced, and each candidate would have ample opportunity to “shine.” To help plan the forum, they convened an advisory board with such notables as former Sen. Gary Hart, former Vice President Walter Mondale and former Sen. George McGovern — that act itself a feat of networking skill.
“It helped that we know people who know them, and those people feel comfortable asking on our behalf,” Treadway says. “They made the introductions and vouched for us.”
The advisory board worked with the forum’s two moderators, Daily Kos Contributing Editor Joan McCarter and New York Times Magazine contributor Matt Bai, to vet questions submitted from the blogosphere. All candidates appeared on stage at the same time to field the prepared questions, then a facilitator invited questions from the audience.
“It was a coup to get them all on stage at once,” Treadway says.
In addition to the forum, candidates spoke at individual breakout sessions, where pre-registration was required for crowd control. Simultaneous netcasting in Second Life and via YouStream.tv enabled questions from online attendees to be posed by session facilitators.
Candidates arrived with an entourage of campaign staffers and Secret Service protection. Treadway arranged for additional security, as well as one green room and one staff room for each candidate. All 14 rooms had to be on the same floor for security reasons and have live feeds from the main auditorium. Their distance from the auditorium is the one thing he would have changed. “VIPs don’t like to walk a lot,” he says. “If I could do it over, I’d relieve them of that burden.”
By the time Netroots Nation comes to Austin, TX, July 17-20, 2008, only one Democratic candidate will remain in the race, so no forum is planned. But Treadway will be prepared for the high-profile politicians who are likely to attend along with nealry 2,500 activists.
“As good as blogging is, you can’t duplicate a face-to-face meeting for the synergy it creates,” he says.
Cathy Chatfield- Taylor is a San Francisco Bay-area freelance writer/editor. E-mail cathy@ cc-tunlimited.com. NETROOTS NATION’S STRATEGY Goal: Gather bloggers together to proactively influence government. Objective: Provide citizen-driven forum for Democratic candidate dialog. Strategy: Convene advisory board of high-profile politicians and activists. Tactics: Invite candidates to presidential forum, solicit and vet questions from blogosphere, provide added security and VIP accommodations. Results: Seven of the eight Democratic candidates participated.
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