2009 Politics Online Conference

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MetroStar Systems was a sponsor of the 2009 Politics Online Conference [#polc09] in Washington, DC on Monday, April 20 & Tuesday, April 21 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (www.itcdc.com). The conference was hosted by the Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet, GWU’s Graduate School of Political Management, and Campaigns and Election’s Politics Magazine.

Venue

The Ronald Reagan Building is a great venue for conferences.  It is dynamic, spacious, and the staff & security were great.  The conference hosts did a great job at organizing and executing the event, and they were very friendly and helpful to the sponsors and attendees.  MetroStar Systems sends a special thanks to Lynn Stinson, Colette Beyer, and Julie Germany for all of their time and help!

Keynote Session

One of the most entertaining presentations was the keynote session “How We Did It: A Conversation with the Online Communications Directors from the Obama and McCain Campaigns.” This keynote featured Joe Rospars (former Director of New Media for Obama) and Michael Palmer (eCampaign Director for McCain2008), and was moderated by Ana Maria Cox (Air America).   This conversation quickly turned into a heavyweight battle (Joe vs. Michael) with Ana as the referee.  They were exchanging jabs about their respective social media strategies for the Obama and McCain campaigns from the very beginning up to election night.  Although Michael did acknowledge that Joe did a great job for Obama and congratulated him on winning the election, he was quick to dismiss the idea that Obama’s social media campaign was that special or strategically different than McCain’s.  Michael’s strongest counter-punch was that Obama’s campaign had more resources and had a “star” candidate.  The disapproving response from the audience seemed to surprise him, and at one point I’m pretty sure I saw steam coming out of his red face with his devilish smile.

Meanwhile, Joe stayed cool with his steady jabs talking about Obama’s grassroots campaign strategy that:

  1. Leveraged the power of social media
  2. Empowered and trained local organizers to create their own Obama campaigns in their respective communities, and
  3. Focused on the small donors rather than the traditional Democratic donors and fundraising techniques.

While we already know who won this fight before it even began, it was interesting and intriguing to watch Michael Palmer franticly defend McCain’s campaign while Joe Rospars was calmly sharing the revolutionary strategy that helped Obama win.

There were many other great panels, sessions, and keynote presentations over the two days of the conference.  Below are highlights of some ideas, quotes, and tools that really stood out.

Favorite quotes from the 2009 POC:

  • “The Revolution will not be televised…it’s being twitted.”
  • “You can produce things (solutions) for problems you didn’t even know existed.”
  • “The internet makes it easy to find what you are looking for; but it makes it harder to find what you are not looking for.”
  • “Power is giving people tools to solve their own unique problems.”
  • Senator Claire McCaskill (D, MO):
    • “Tweeting is a way that I can be disciplined about ‘keeping it real.’”
    • “I have not and will not ever turn my tweets over to someone else.”
  • Peter Corbett with simple, yet profound advice:
    • “Everyone is an influencer within their own sphere.”
    • “Focus on one-on-one relationships.”
    • “Build a community that is about them, not about you.”
  • John Henke (referring to how the GOP needs someone besides Reagan to identify with)
    • “Republicans say ‘Reagan’ like Smurfs say ‘smurf’!”

Cool tools, websites, & applications for social media analytics and efficiency:

You can find more information about the 2009 Politics Online Conference on its wiki:
http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/Project:Politics_Online_Conference

Or search Twitter using the hashtag:   #polc09

Posted on May 1st, 2009 in Community, News, Our Culture, Tips & Tricks.