It’s nice to be out of Maryland and back in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I can see the apartment I lived in in Crystal Towers during my first year of law school from my hotel room window. If you lean to the right a little, you can see the south face of the Pentagon. I certainly cannot complain about the chosen venue - the Gateway Marriott is literally right on top of the Crystal City Metro stop.

The festivities start now. Three workshops begin at 9am, all focused on new media training, sponsored by the Leadership Institute, the Lucy Burns Institute, and the Sam Adams Alliance.

As I recall, our own local Ben Cunningham was a Sammy Award Winner.

Anyhow, the Leadership Institute is a grass roots training organization located here in Arlington, Virginia, which focuses on winning elections - you know, in legal ways, unlike some liberal corrupt GOTV organizations we have come to know and love.

The Lucy Burns Institute is a newer organization, based out of Wisconsin, whose efforts focus primarily on government transparency.

I’ll go down and check it out in a few minutues. These seminars seem to run until 2pm, so I’ll likely be in and out of them until the Oregon Luncheon at 11:30 am, which is being hosted by Lars Larson.