We're thrilled to announce that Netroots Nation 2011 will take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota June 16-19, 2011!
Click here to register now
Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak welcomes Netroots Nation 2011:
We're streaming all keynotes + 6 rooms of panels, get the details here.
View the schedule for our keynotes.
View the schedule for Brasilia 6.-->
We’ve got an exciting four days planned for you, with 70 panels, 30 training sessions from our Campaign Academy, a screening series and tons of parties and events. We hope this preview e-mail will help you plan your week and ensure that you have a great experience. You'll receive a program once you arrive, but you can download an advance copy of the schedule grid (PDF) now.
Here are a few more things to keep as you prepare to join us:
• Projects large and small have been born at Netroots Nation, and our identity and regional caucuses are a good place to start networking.
• Hang out with the Netroots Nation team and help us out by volunteering at this years conference. Email activist@netrootsnation.org if you or anyone you know is interested.
• Head over to the Exhibit Hall where you'll find everything from massages to beer tastings to author signings.
• While Las Vegas has no shortage of things to do, check out all the fabulous parties and events being hosted by Netroots Nation sponsors and friends.
• Join us for our second annual Netroots Nation service project. This year, we're teaming up with the fantastic local non-profit Three Square, the valley’s food hub and a central location where donated and rescued food can be collected and distributed to the Las Vegas community. Their name is a reminder that $1 can provide three square meals a day. Plan to meet at 11 a.m. outside Brasilia 1 to give back to our host city. If you can't make it, please consider making a $1 (or more) donation to help feed the hungry. Look for the donation boxes in the registration area and exhibit hall.
• And finally, we know that you're going to be too busy having a great time this week to check email, so make sure you sign up for mobile updates by texting “Netroots” to 69866. And be sure to tag your Tweets, posts and photos with the #nn10 hashtag.
Much has been made of the so-called enthusiasm gap this year in the traditional media. Maybe they’re right—after all, the much-lauded Tea Party Unity Convention was canceled two weeks out due to the “Las Vegas heat.”
Thankfully, we’re not scared of a little heat. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome all 2,000 of you to Las Vegas this year for our fifth annual convention.
Since we first gathered five years ago at the Riviera, we’ve grown, organized and mobilized. In the next four days, we’ll look at issues of the day and organize for the upcoming election cycle. But we must look beyond 2010 and even 2012; we must challenge ourselves to look down the road five or 10 years to consider what infrastructure we’ll need and what long-term battles we must organize for now.
Click here to read more
When Barack Obama took office, pundits across the country were predicting a transition to a post-racial America.
And while Obama's win was historic in many ways, the issue of race and discrimination hasn't been solved. If anything, it's gotten worse.
From countering racism from Tea Party leaders to fighting Arizona's discriminatory SB 1070 law to battling for marriage equality from state to state, activists across the country fight every day for equal rights. But it's not enough. For too long these have been seen as separate issues instead of different manifestations of the same problem.
Next week, National Center for Lesbian Rights Executive Director Kate Kendell, SEIU's Eliseo Medina, writer and activist Tim Wise, and Hip-Hop Caucus President Rev. Lennox Yearwood will join us for a panel discussion called Civil Rights in the Modern Era. Open Left's Mike Lux will moderate.
We hope you'll join us for this important discussion.
During the ’50s and ’60s, the civil rights fight resulted in an incredible amount of activism and movement building. That work has continued for decades but is far from finished.
During this lunchtime session, we'll look at some of today's civil rights battles -- from immigration to LGBT equality to traditional civil rights issues -- and talk about ways to unify our efforts and continue the fight for equality for all.
It may require re-examining some of our assumptions and going outside of our respective comfort zones. It's a discussion we have to have -- openly and honestly -- if we're ever going to break down the walls that exist in our country.
Thousands of activists are making plans now to join us next week to talk about important issues and organize for how to fight for progressive causes.
In exactly one week, thousands of progressive activists will descend on Las Vegas for the fifth annual Netroots Nation convention.
We'll have 70 engaging panels, 30 hands-on training sessions and a host of inspiring speakers coming to talk to--and engage with--you. We're especially excited to announce that Van Jones will return to Netroots Nation for a Saturday morning keynote. He'll then be joined in conversation with The Nation's Ari Melber.
When Van Jones spoke at Netroots Nation in 2008, we didn't yet know Barack Obama would be our president. But Van laid out the crisis we find ourselves in with remarkable clarity:
"Here is our problem. The right-wing has a strategy for getting energy prices down and stable, they want to drill and burn their way out of the problem. And you've heard it now for months. Drill now pay less. That is their strategy and they continue to beat the drum on that and now the Democrats are starting to get weak on the point and we cannot drill and burn our way out of this crisis, if we do we will bake this planet. That is a non-starter. It has to be off the table. We cannot drill and burn our way out….
The next president of the United States should say we're going to have a World War II level mobilization, a crash program to weatherize and solarize America, put up millions of solar panels on every surface we can find and put people to work doing it. That's a way out. We have the technology. We have not had the political will to unleash that technology."
That was Van Jones on July 20, 2008 at Netroots Nation in Austin. We really can't do his remarks justice, so we encourage you to watch his speech from Austin in full.
Van didn't foresee BP causing the worst oil spill in history, but he knew we couldn't "drill and burn" our way out of our energy problem. And he didn't foresee the economy crashing because of the bets companies like Goldman Sachs made, but he knew putting in place a smart energy strategy would create massive amounts of jobs and lead to a new century of American innovation.
It's not too late to turn our backs on the future BP has created and instead embrace the future that Van so elegantly articulated.
Join us as he challenges us to push forward and build a future we'll be proud of.
In addition to Van, you'll hear from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Al Franken, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Elizabeth Warren, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Ed Schultz, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Ben Cardin, Sen. Tom Udall, Rep. Alan Grayson, Rep. Raul Grijalva, Rep. Jared Polis, Rep. Donna Edwards, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Rich Trumka, Jennifer O’Malley Dillion, Jon Vogel, J.B. Poersch, Laura Flanders, Tim Wise, Lizz Winstead, Majora Carter, Markos Moulitsas, Tarryl Clark, Bill Halter, George Goehl, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Deepak Bhargava, Gerald McEntee, Eliseo Medina and many more.
Each year, we aim to provide opportunities for you to have a conversation with our country's top leaders. Two years ago, Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined us in Austin, and we're thrilled to announce that she'll again join us in Las Vegas for a conversation with you.
This won't be a typical keynote speech. This is a chance for you to have a conversation with one of the most powerful leaders in our country.
Speaker Pelosi will join us for an interactive Ask the Speaker session moderated by Cheryl Contee of Jack and Jill Politics. Click on the headline in this post to learn how to submit a question.
Five years ago when we held our first convention in Las Vegas, Democrats were in the minority in both houses of Congress and George W. Bush was in the middle of his second term.
A lot has changed in five years. But like our first YearlyKos Convention, Nevada's own Harry Reid will join us again at Netroots Nation for a conversation with you.
Sen. Reid will join us for an interactive Ask the Leader session moderated by Joan McCarter, contributing editor at Daily Kos. Click on the headline of this post to learn how to submit a question.
During our Netroots Nation 2011 location search, we considered a variety of cities and regions and found Providence, RI to be a great fit. Unfortunately, soon afterward it was brought to our attention that the Local 217 Union and the Westin in Providence were in the midst of a labor dispute, which consisted of:
July 24