Netroots Nation, formerly known as Yearly Kos, will have its 2008 convention in Austin.
There are many reasons that we chose Austin, personally, I was most compelled because the hotel rate was $25 better than the other city. But it also gives me peace of mind to know the venue can handle our technical needs because they host South by Southwest every year. Another great reason is that we have already been approached by people on the ground to help with organizing local volunteers (always a consideration for a convention that relies on getting 100+ volunteers, many of whom tend to be local to the area). Finally, Austin has everything that our audience asked for in our post-convention surveys this year. The rooms are cheap, the city is walkable, there are many food and accommodation options, and the meeting space is compact.
Very cool. Of course, this means I no longer have an excuse for not attending. Thus, I look forward to seeing those of you who’ve been before and will be back. Here’s a statement about this by the Rick Noriega campaign:
On behalf of all Texans, Rick Noriega congratulates the City of Austin as he shares in their excitement as host of the 2008 Netroots Nation convention. The Netroots community has not only proven that it can change the conventional wisdom of politics, but that it can change the conventional practices of politics as well.
We have the opportunity to enact meaningful change in the makeup of the U.S. Senate in 2008 and Rick is proud to be the candidate to put Texas in play. Our grassroots movement in Texas has garnered Democracy for America’s first Senate endorsement, the support of John Kerry and Wesley Clark, the backing of the Texas netroots and Blue America communities, as well as contributions from over 2,400 online donors– the most donors of any Senate challenger on ActBlue.
Welcome to Austin, Netroots! Rick and our entire campaign team look forward to meeting many of you in person next July 17-20.
Keynote speech, anyone? More on NN can be found here.
Woohoo. I have a non-hurricane excuse to go to Austin.