I've been hearing some people talking about YearlyKos 2007 --- and if it turned out anything like 2006, it would obviously be amazing --- but it got me thinking.
I was watching a cspan broadcast of one event last night and was extremely impressed that the people asking questions from the audience were all, themselves, from prestigious progressive blogs. It made me wonder if a yearlykos convention would really satisfy the progressive blogger community in the long term, where all of the other bloggers play second banana to Markos.
Not that Markos doesn't deserve plenty of credit, but my own (very limited) experience with conventions suggests that the blogosphere might be inclined to go the way that most groups, I believe, prefer.
I've been to a writer's convention and to a politics convention. Let me use the politics one as a model. As a grad student in politics, I ponied up the student rate for membership in the American Political Science Association ($40 I think). For that, I recieved a membership directory, an invitation to the annual convention, and a monthly newsletter that talked about the career moves of others in APSA, sponsored statistical studies of interest to the membership, and included papers on topics about the field of political science.
I would guess that most of the money went to support staff who worked on the newsletter and the convention. As large a group as it was, perhaps some money went to support a lobbyist in Washington to advance our interests. (I can imagine the protests here at such a move, but "net neutrality" anyone?)
In any case, just thought I'd throw out the idea, here at what may be a non-neutral forum (dailykos isn't exactly removed from yearlykos!) and see what people think.