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Promoted by DarkSyde)
As one of the lead organizers of YearlyKos, I thought I would give a run down of what is going down today in Las Vegas.... Today is the "pre-conference" day so the full schedule isn't open but we've got many workshops and caucuses for those of you that are in Vegas to enjoy. The Convention Schedule on the YearlyKos website is much better than it was just a few days ago (thanks pontificator for entering the updated info!), but the rundown of the day is on the flip....
These workshops have limited seating in order to create a better atmosphere for learning (as opposed to being talked to in a large panel discussion), so please, if you're in Vegas and the workshop you want to go to is full, respect the workshop attendees and the presenter, who is only prepared for a small audience. Check at the YearlyKos registration desk to find out which session are still taking people.
note: these are the only workshops for which there will be such strict number watching. You don't have to sign up in advance for any of the workshops or roundtable discussions on Friday or Saturday
- There is only one workshop that is totally maxed out at this point and that is: Center for American Progress Pundit Project Training so don't even try it!
- If you want to refine your skills on everyone's favorite website and community platform, drupal stop by the CivicSpace Workshop and Barnraising (Presenters: Zack Rosen, Adam Mordecai, Fred Gooltz, Josh Koenig and Nick Lewis) I mean, who doesn't like barnraising and if you can get some web skills in the process all the better! But you've got to get there early as the session starts early. It's schedule for 8:00 AM - 3:45 PM.
- Progressive Majority comes to the plate next with a trio of great sessions. Starting the day, from 8:00 AM - 10 AM is Progressive Majority Workshop: Making the Decision to Run (Presenter: Dean Nielsen) I guess I know one Kossack that won't need this training. Who will be the next? If running isn't your thing, you can always work on finding great progressives to run in Progressive Majority Workshop: Recruiting Progressive Candidates(Presenter: Raj Shukla) which is scheduled for 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM. Finally we've got a session that I think might be full, it's a round table discussion on organizing called Progressive Majority Roundtable: Down Ballot Online Organizing(Presenters: Dean Nielsen and Raj Shukla) It's on 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM. Check at the registration desk to find out if there is space left.
- Democracy for America? Um, yes please! Now who doesn't love DFA? We all know what great work they do every day and now you can enjoy it too! Catch Democracy for America Workshop: From Computer Screens to the Streets: Turning Online Activism to Tangible Offline Action (Presenter: Arshad Hasan) This is the same session going twice, but the morning session is less full (I wonder why?) Session One 9:30 AM - 12:15 PM Session Two 1:00 PM - 3:45 PM.
Next up is the roundtables and caucuses, these don't require pre-registration and are only limited by the size of the room or the willingness of attendees to sit on the floor:
- LBGT Caucus - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
- African American Caucus - 9:45 AM - 11:15 AM
- Latina/Latino Caucus hosted by Kety Esquivel -12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
- Student Caucus - 2:15 PM - 3:45 PM
- Regional Caucuses: Northeast, Midwest, Pacific coast, Rocky Mountain, South, International - 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
- FDL Caucus hosted by Jane Hamsher- 5:45 PM - 7:15 PM
- MyDD Caucus hosted by Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers - 5:45 PM - 7:15 PM
- Mother Talkers Caucus hosted by Elisa Batista- 5:45 PM - 7:15 PM
- Science Bloggers Caucus hosted by Steven DarkSyde - 5:45 PM - 7:15 PM
- Asian-American Caucus hosted by Curtis Chin - 5:45 PM - 7:15 PM
- Native American Caucus hosted by Neeta Lind - 5:45 PM - 7:15 PM
And the day wraps with the Mojo Mixer, starting at 7:30pm, featuring the jokes of Laughing Liberally, the ironic wit of Tom Tomorrow, and the words of wisdom from the guy who owns the servers brought this community together
And what if you're not in Vegas to see Tom Tomorrow and Markos for yourselves? You can watch the live stream of it provided by AirAmerica and The Majority Report for only $10! And while I'm on the topic of video coverage of YearlyKos, while recent diaries have led you to believe that CSPAN will be giving YearlyKos a lot of coverage, that is not entirely true. CSPAN won't be carrying the event on Thursday night. CSPAN won't be covering the science panel featuring Wesley Clark. CSPAN won't be covering the IAVA panel. CSPAN won't be covering Howard Dean's speech. CSPAN won't be covering the panel on the importance of the south. CSPAN won't be covering Harry Reid's Saturday night keynote. CSPAN won't be covering Mark Warner's keynote to Kossacks. And more than all that, CSPAN isn't one of us, CSPAN isn't a part of the progressive movement, AirAmerica is. CSPAN will be covering about 5 panels, but the only way to catch ALL the great action is to lay down the $10 lousy dollars and stream it from AirAmerica. I'm asking you to step up to the plate and buy the streaming coverage from AirAmerica because if this is successful for AirAmerica future progressive events will be streamed. Are we going to take back our country on CSPAN? Nope. We're going to take it back with our own frame of media. Please help make this important first step a success.
YearlyKos in the news:
- The Sacramento Bee has what I thought to be a pretty good article (reg required) on YearlyKos. Of all the pieces on YK that have been in the news lately, this is the one that I found most informative and straight forward. This is the one I forwarded to family and friends to explain why I haven't been returning calls for 6 weeks.
- YearlyKos's own Executive Director, Gina Cooper, will be on Washington Journal on CSPAN during the 9am Eastern hour today. If you are on the east coast you should watch it. If you are in Vegas you should be nice to Gina today because that was a live interview.
And now a couple housekeeping notes:
- The next speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, will not be able to make it to YearlyKos after all. She has important business to take care of in Washington (like voting) and she deeply regrets she won't be able to make it. She had a whole line of "troll rating" and "pony" jokes lined up too.
- There is no food served by YearlyKos today, so be warned.
- If you're attending, the schedule in the program is not entirely correct, please pick up a copy of the entire updated conference schedule at the Registration Desk
- New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will be joining Jerome's energy panel 9:30-10:45am on Friday.