I’m finally back to writing after my marathon conference schedule starting with the YDA National Convention in Chicago and ending in Pittsburgh for Netroots Nation 2009.

First I would like to thank Democracy for America for providing me with the opportunity to attend through their scholarship program.

I was a little underwhelmed by the panels this year compared to the offerings at Netroots Nation 2008. While this may have been due to the excitement of the Presidential election last year, I think there are some improvements that could be made to make upcoming Netroots Nations just as impressive.

1. More Variety: This year it felt like many of the panels were repetitions of other panels, and many of the panelists were used in 2 or 3 panels. While it would make sense to offer a popular panel more than once due to a packed schedule, it did not seem like this was the reason for the overlap. This could have just been a result of a smaller number of panels being proposed this year, but that could have been remedied by better promotion of the panel proposal process.
2. Panels for Online Operatives: Netroots Nation began as a blogging conference for the Daily Kos community, and the vast majority of the panels still seem to be catered to the writing audience. Now that Netroots Nation has opened up and has become one of the premier conferences for online campaign staff, it would be great to see more panels/trainings on technical practices and strategy. A few panels from NN09 did this, such as the ones on e-mail writing and social media ROI, but I think a larger offering would be extremely valuable.
3. Have Both Introduction and Advanced Panels: Most of the attendees of Netroots Nation have been to a prior Netroots Nation or YearlyKos. However, it seems that most panels are very entry-level with fewer opportunities for learning more advanced strategies or topics. There should be new things to learn even for those attendees that have been coming for years.
4. Mixer Events that Aren’t too Loud to Talk: One thing I have noticed over the last 2 Netroots Nations is that the official mixers/parties tend to have music that is so loud that it is difficult to talk with people. While I enjoy a good loud party as much as the next guy, it isn’t the best way to let a community meet each other and talk. Hopefully in the future there will be more official gatherings that are more conducive to communicating.

Of course the best thing about Netroots Nation is meeting people you have been working with and talking to online face-to-face. It was great meeting many of you, and for those that I wasn’t able to meet up with in Pittsburgh, hopefully we will soon.

What are your thoughts/ideas about NN09 and how to make future Netroots Nations better? Share in the comments.