Chispa is the spanish word for “spark” and rest assured, there was nothing but sparks flying at the Fridge in DC tonight. The Fridge is a bar/art gallery/event space in D.C. and by far one of the coolest that I’ve seen since I’ve lived here.

Passion poured out in the form of ten completely different presentations, all united around a single purpose: to share what they’re thinking, dreaming and doing. This was Chispa D.C.

At first, I was on the fence about attending. I’ve got lots of schoolwork, I’m clearly behind on my blogging, I’ve got enough reading to do to keep me engrossed for 48 hours straight… but this was well worth it. Never again will I question going to an event in D.C. like this–these don’t happen every day, and each one is another chance to learn and to grow. Check below the cut for a quick summary and some of the photos I shot tonight.

Read more »

So in case you don’t remember, last month’s Social Media Breakfast DC was awesome. This month’s was just as good.

The theme this time around was “Blogging the City,” with the city obviously being DC (which I love, love, love–I honestly cannot tell you how much I love living in this city). Hosted at the awesome Busboys and Poets (they’re on Twitter too: @busboysandpoets) in the U Street neighborhood, today proved that I’m definitely not the only one who loves this city. In fact, as almost all our speakers this morning put it, they love this city so much they’re willing to put in more than their fair share of the “labor of love” in order to spread the word about the fantastic events, news and opportunities our city has to offer.

The line-up of speakers was fantastic. We had the founders of WeLoveDC, FreeinDC and Borderstan presenting and they had some thought-provoking and inspiring things to say. Check below the cut for the highlights, lots of links and even a video of the speakers if you’d like to watch the event yourself!

Read more »

Sounds like the beginning of a bad geek joke, doesn’t it?

Well actually, it was the setting of tonight’s Social Media Club DC event, titled “Leveraging Online Relationships,” and hosted at Microsoft’s Friendship Heights office here in Washington, D.C. Organized and hosted by the awesome Sarah Wurrey, the event blew our geeky little minds, as usual. The panel consisted of:

• Alan Rosenblatt – A digital strategist, liberal organizer, professor and blogger, Alan is also the Associate Director of Online Advocacy for the Center for American Progress. Lucky me, this has been my second time to meet him in the past five days (he can’t escape me, haha!) and I swear he teaches me so much every time, not to mention every day via Twitter/Facebook/etc.
• Rebecca Wales – Rebecca is the Director of Communications for Smart Girl Politics, a conservative action network. Now obviously I have my qualms with her cause, but she’s got some real talent and she’s an incredibly nice person. She’s a ton of fun to talk to and I learned a lot from her tonight. Plus, know thy enemy, right? (Just kidding, Rebecca!)
• Brian Dresher – He is the Marketing Manager for USA Today, and boy is he smart. Not only did he provide some excellent insight into social media, but he provided the unique viewpoint of someone who’s industry is changing rapidly and dramatically–journalism. He told us a little about what USA Today is doing to continue to connect with its audience, and even told us where you can get a little bit of a behind-the-scenes glimpse.

So, clearly, you missed out. Anyway, be sure to check the hashtag stream for more learnings from the evening. Also, see my photos from the event embedded below or here on my flickr.

So no time to do a proper text wrap-up of Roots Camp tonight, but I did manage to get all my photos online from today. Take a look on my flickr set here, or just click through the embedded slideshow below. Thanks everybody at Roots Camp for a fantastic day today, it was a blast and I learned so much. Can’t wait ’til Roots Camp 11! I’ll try and get my text-based wrap-up (lessons learned, criticism, etc.) at some point soon, probably sometime during this week.

Breakfast at Roots Camp! #rc10
Originally uploaded by alex.priest

So just wanted to toss out a quick update this morning as I’m sitting here waiting on NOI’s Roots Camp to begin. So far, so good! I biked down here about 20 minutes ago (it’s a beautiful day, by the way) and now I’m sitting in the atrium of the National Education Association waiting on the festivities to begin!

It looks to be a fun-filled day of learning, talking, networking and organizing. For those of you unfamiliar with Roots Camp, it is, in a lot of ways, just a look back at the progressive organizing of 2009, what we’ve learned and what we can do better. Expect lots of talking Twitter, online organizing, as well as the “old” methods of offline organizing!

Roots Camp is what they call an “unconference,” a really cool, somewhat new format of conference where, quite literally, the participants set the agenda. When you walk in, they give you a blank card with the words “Session title:” and “Your Name:”. The participants create sessions (as many as possible!) and then arrange them on a giant grid in the atrium to fit with the pre-set schedule. Then you just go to it! The schedule may change and fluctuate throughout the day, and yes, it’s a little chaotic, but it’s also fun and gets everyone participating.

Another quick thing: my friend Chris Golden pointed out that the infamous Glenn Beck is speaking at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) here in DC. Interesting contrast, I’d say.

More to come later on, possibly today, maybe tomorrow, maybe this week… who knows. Regardless, you know you can always find me tweeting (and I’ll be tweeting about Roots Camp all day with the hashtag #RC10).