BURLINGTON- Wow. What a day it was at the 1st annual hamburger summit at North Beach in Burlington, VT. The event was organized by the great John Odum of "Green Mountain Daily", Phil Baruth of the "Vermont Daily Briefing", and a lot of hard hard legwork by Neil Jensen (a.k.a. Vermonter) of "What's The Point?" I'll tell ya, it was great fun, great food, and most of all... awesome conversations.

The folks who were there were mainly political afficionados who cover local politics, Vermont politics, national politics, or misc. happenings in Burlington (or in my case... Brattleboro). Check out the picture I submitted and that will give you a run down of who showed up... not to metion what we all look like "in 3D!"

What also made it a great day were the politicans and staffers who showed up to have some fun and schmooze with the folks that really do have an influential say when it comes to local & state politics. They know how important we really are. The following pols & staffers that came were:

Scudder Parker, Dem. candidate for Governor
Peter Welch, Dem. candidate for U.S. Congress
Matt Dunne, Dem. Candidate for Lt. Gov.
T.J. Donovan, Dem. candidate for Chittenden County State Atty.
Andrew Savage, Peter Welchís Communications Director
Even Brendan McKenna, Martha Rainvilleís campaign spokesman

NO ONE from the media was there except....

Shay Totten Publisher of the Vermont Guardian

Thanks Shay!

There were a number of other faces that were there but I couldn't name all of them to save my life.

Too many things to tell you and so little time. It was really the small things that were great. The introductions, the conversations, the laughs, and the mutual respect we shared for one another. I got a chance to meet Charity Tensel of "She's Right" and she was really cool to talk with. She and Neil Jensen of "What's The Point?" were tickled pink to hear that they get a lot of referrals from Ibrattleboro- Thanks to you guys!

I also spoke to 2 bloggers in particular and we were talking about the upcoming Seven Daysies award for best Vermont Blog. Both of them told me that they see Ibrattleboro as this year's "dark horse" contender! Not bad for a northern Vermont paper, eh? I've also noticed that Ibrattleboro is getting mentioned more and more on Cathy Resmer's "802 Online" more.

Some people were asking where Chris & Lise were and I just told them they were hibernating from last week's conference down at UMass-Amherst. They are looking forward to meeting them at next year's BBQ.

I've been lobbying to get them to move down further south for next year, maybe we can even get them come down to Brattleboro, especially if Ibrattleboro wins the Seven Daysies! HA!

Anyway, enough silliness.

EVERYONE WAS SO AWESOME and it was SO well worth the long drive from Dummerston. I highly encourage more Ibrattleboro folks go next year. I'm sure we'll all have a lot to say about citizen journalism... and Selectboard stories to keep them entertained.

I'm looking forward to the primaries in September, the general election in November, and most of all all the great discussions that will ensue on the Vermont political blogosphere from here on out.

Again, a big shout out goes to John of "GMD" and Phil of "Vermont Daily Briefing" for what was such a fun and meaningful event!

- patagonianomore

a.k.a. "Brattlerouser" from Green Mountain Daily



The amazing Vermont Blogosphere: (standing, left to right) Steve & Eve
Benen-The Carpetbagger Report, Bill Simmon-Candleblog, Neil Jensen-What's
The Point?, Brattlerouser-Green Mountain Daily a.k.a.
Patagonianomore-Ibrattleboro, John Odum-Green Mountain Daily, Charity
Tensel-She's Right; (kneeling, left to right) Haik Bedrosian with daughter
Koko-BurlingtonPol, and the amazing Phil Baruth-Vermont Daily Briefing

Missing: John Bauer-Vermonters First who was sitting on the beach during
the photo shoot, Chris Grotke & Lise Lepage-Ibrattleboro... because they
were getting some R & R after the citizen journalism conference at
UMass-Amherst