That’s not the only word, but it is the best word I can think of to describe Rising Tide III, from which I have just returned. High fives to the organizers, panelists, and participants for putting together an awesome and altogether memorable experience. And a great big “thank you” to all the bloggers for welcoming Gambit Weekly and blogofneworleans into your growing fold. On a personal note, it was really fun to finally put faces and names to all the local bloggers I’ve started reading in the past year. I would name you all here, but I’m quite sure I’d leave someone out, so forgive me if I acknowledge you collectively. You guys rock.
Also, congratulations to the Bloggers of the Year — the late great Ashley Morris, Matt McBride and Karen Gadbois. All three got well-deserved standing ovations from the crowd.
All of panel discussions were excellent, but my personal favorite was the one on the intersection of bloggers and traditional media — probably because that’s the area in which I have the most to learn. Jeffrey did a masterful job of framing the questions and keeping the panel and the crowd on point, and the panelists’ responses and insights were terrific. Here are my nominees for the best one-liners/insights of the day (from that panel):
Eli — “Journalism is a civic responsibility.”
David Winkler-Schmit — “Journalism is an integral part of democracy … yet today there are 25 percent fewer print journalists than there were in 1990.”
Kevin Allman — “There’s nothing progressive about Arianna Huffington. She wants to take your content, make money off it, and pay you nothing.”
Lee Zurik — “People are smarter than these people (corporate media moguls) give them credit for. They’re not gonna watch crap.”
And the best line of the day came from — guess who? — on the same panel: “My eyebrows are real!”
Take that, Adrastos. (BTW, you did a great job moderating the politics panel.)
