Stealth Blogging in NYC: the Wrap Up
The conference is over and I’m still in one piece. Which means I didn’t blow my cover. Day one was informative and fairly surprising. Arianna Huffington was delightfully rational, while Elizabeth Edwards put me into REM sleep almost instantly. The tech-geek breakout strategy sessions were invaluable and really made day one worth it. More importantly, perhaps, than the sanctioned meetings were the chats I had with the attendees. The networking and brain-picking that occurred was crucial in reinforcing the concepts we learned in the sessions. Day one ended like it ought to have: good times in Hell’s Kitchen late into the night. ‘Nuff said.
I spent day two of the conference trying to wade through all the anti-property rights and government cure-all rhetoric seeking the technological insight from day one. I didn’t find much. I did however attend a breakout session where an ally of mine took part in a panel discussion. Not surprisingly, she was the most rational and entertaining one there. Day two ended with…. well, day two ended, thankfully. The events that took place the previous night in Hell’s Kitchen led to one of the most informative, off the record chats we had. I can’t disclose who and what went down on the night of day two, but needless to say, it was priceless.
All in all, the conference was well worth it. Well worth holding my breath (the few times I did) and trying my best to keep lunch down. Although the other side is nearly devoid of good ideas when it comes to policy, they’ve got ideas for days on how to further advance policy using technology and the Internet. And for that, I’d like to say, ‘thanks guys.’
