Blogging from Minneapolis: Netroots Nation 2011 LGBT Connect Pre-Conference

June 15, 2011

It’s been raining since yesterday nonstop in Minneapolis. I arrived here yesterday; this is my second time in this city but my first time staying in downtown.

This is exciting. I’m attending the Netroots Nation 2011 conference, thanks to a last-minute decision and the extraordinary support of the National Blogger and Citizen Journalist Initiative. This is the biggest conference for progressives activists, organizers, bloggers, independent journalists and community leaders.

Minneapolis is located in the middle of farmland, its downtown area seems quiet with an urban design that is reminds a lot of modern architecture, you can see lots of corporate buildings , concrete and glass, pedestrian bridges and few people in the streets.

This is my third time at Netroots Nation (follow #NN11 in Twitter). In the two previous conferences in Las Vegas and Pittsburg, I attended to learn about the world of social media, it was something I did more as an observer. Currently, blogging takes most of my time and I’m content with the results of my work, which is not exclusively about LGBT rights and issues, but is leaning towards that direction.

However, I want to improve my blogs and increase their impact and readership. For that matter, in this year’s NN conference I will be focusing on three main issues: equality and LGBT rights, immigration reform and the Dream Act, and how to increase the presence of Latinos in social media.

Today, I’m heading to the LGBT Netroots Connect pre-conference, where I will be meeting with some of the most prestigious LGBT bloggers and activists in the U.S. including Mike Rogers who is being so supportive of my work. In the last few years, the LGBT civil rights movement in the U.S. has achieved meaningful victories, especially in the White House, and that is result of the work of many of the people I will see today.

Update: I posted some PHOTOS of the LGBT Netroots Conference pre-conference. You can follow the debate on Twitter.

The NN conference starts tomorrow and I will participating in the immigration panels –check this list prepared by America’s Voice– and I will look out for friends I met before, especially Latino bloggers and activists which are not many in here.

It’s 6:00 in the morning in Minneapolis, it’s still raining and is cool out there, and it doesn’t feel like summer but is comfortable. I feel good in this place, regardless of people staring at me often. I’m seating in a Starbucks inside of a glass building, thinking about the impact of my blogs and the future.

Soon I will start a new project that I hope will be decisive in my life for years to come, and even though I’m not certain of what events will include but I’m excited and optimistic about its goals.

Volunteering at Netroots Nation 2011