The Personal Democracy Forum was fantastic. Thanks again to Claire Cole and the Younger Women’s Task Force for the comped ticket.
The panels were all really interesting, and I met a lot of fantastic people — notables include Liza Sabater, Deanna Zandt, Peter Daou, Ari Rabin-Havt, Matt Stoller, and “Philo” (who I will not out here, since I’m not sure s/he wants her/himself revealed), among others who I am too exhaused to name and link to right now. But connections were made, people were met, and I left happy. The panel discussions were great — there was one that I didn’t liveblog because my computer was charging up, featuring Jonah Seiger (moderator), David All, Cheryl Contee, Mary Katherine Ham, and Matt Stoller. Mary Katherine and Matt were my favorite participants. Now, I don’t suspect that Mary Katherine and I will ever see eye to eye on a whole lot of issues — the woman does run Townhall, after all — but she had a lot of interesting things to say about the interaction between bloggers and the mainstream media, and was very insightful. Ditto for Matt.
Post-panels, there was an open bar at a lounge across the street, and we all got some good mingling in. Then a few of us went to Turkish food for dinner, and now here I am. All in all, a good — but long — day. I feel slighly less nerdy, though, having met other bloggers in real life and having realized that we aren’t all cave-dwelling pajama-wearing anti-social freaks (I swear, it’s true!). So it was fun. Pictures below the fold.
The first all-male panel.
“How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Blogosphere” — Have Testicles!
DKos himself, on the second all-male panel. The screen in the background displayed a live chatroom, which had audience members giving feedback about the discussion. Note the comment by Liza.
Three of the feminist bloggers: Jill, Jessica, Deanna
Three other feminist bloggers: Jill, Jessica, Liza
Jessica and Matt Stoller. What babes.
Jill, Matt, Jessica
And now, bed.