At the end of Day One, I attended a terrific reception co-sponsored by the Institute for Public Accuracy, Progressive Communicators Network, Project Think Different, Public News Service, The Praxis Project. The short program during the reception focused on “Powerful Results from the Grassroots.”
I was lucky enough to connect with the Progressive Communicators Network (PCN) a few years ago. PCN connects media and public relations practitioners to increase the power and reach of grassroots voices in the media and the formation of public policy and opinion. PCN holds annual national gatherings as well as regional gatherings. I attended at 2004 meeting in Oakland and found all of the participants incredibly experienced, skilled and motivated to move progressive issues forward.
It was through PCN that I met Tracy Van Slyke of In These Times, Josh Seidenfeld of SPIN Project, Carolyn Cushing of PCN and others who I continue to interact with as a communications practitioner with EJS.
I then joined Laura Efurd and Ruth Williams of the Community Technology Foundation of California at dinner. Laura is a native of Hawai’i like me. Her father was the pastor at the Baptist church I attended as a little kid.
At the conference evening event, I ran into Mark Cooper, research director, of the Consumer Federation of America. Mark was one of the speakers at our 2005 national conference at UCLA, which focused on corporations and social justcie. Mark shared with me his successful efforts to extract a Net Neutrality commitment from AT&T in the company’s merger with Bell South.