The Midwest is getting its own C-PAC. That's right. June 3-4, conservatives from the Midwest and the Plains States will converge on St. Louis for a two day conference in principles, values and technology.
The Conservative Heartland Leadership Conference takes place in a couple of weeks, and the editor of this fair blog will be speaking at the conference and also leading a training in social media for consultants and officeholders.
This is a small conference, but there are some noteworthy names attending, including Phyllis Schlafly, Grover Norquist, Matt Blunt and others. In fact, through some strange mix of humor and fortuitous circumstance, I'll actually be on the panel with Mr. Norquist and Mrs. Schafly, in addition to Alan Cobb and Wendy Wright.
If you're curious as to what a small Missouri blogger with no connections, no history of political consulting (and about two hours of campaign volunteering in the last 10 years) is doing in a panel of nationally known speakers and movement leaders, the answer is simple - I'm the token grassroots guy! Actually I'm a professional marketing trainer, and social media in politics is far behind the commercial world. I'm there to give actionable intelligence how to connect with conservative consituents without having to bypass the media filter.
The panel will be about potential, but I'll be leading a training session with Bill Hennessy of the St Louis Tea Party, Kristina Rasmussen of the Illinois Policy Institute, and if I can ever get organized enough, Dana Loesch from The Dana Show on 97.1. What we'd like to do is split the session into those running for those office and those supporting the politician. Dana and Bill will likely speak to the politicians on what it takes to build and sustain a grassroots organization using social media, and Kristina and I will be focusing on the excruciating minutiae of blogging, Twitter, websites and SEO. That's all in flux, but we'll get it down sooner rather than later.
We're also planning a small conference for area conservatives, a TCOT Tweetup around the conference where those interested n what other conservatives are doing can get together without an agenda and just meet up. I'd like to do this either lunchtime the 3rd, or possibly the Tuesday night before - again we're working on that schedule. Follow @24thstate and this blog for more information, and head on over to the conference page if you're interested in attending.
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