I can't begin to imagine all the preparation and effort that went on behind the scenes at The Big Tent here in Denver this week. From open to close, countless staff members have been bending over backwards - working to ensure that the bloggers here had the most accommodating environment ever created for our brand of political coverage. From Digg to Daily Kos, amazing coffee via theunseenbean.com and countless other sponsors - I could not have anticipated how grand a stage they would set.
The patience required to keep us credentialed, continuously clean the tent, and coordinate all the panels, news coverage, meals, electricity (power cords were more crucial than you'd believe), and so many other things is beyond the scope of my description - and I can't thank everyone here enough. The Big Tent is truly an unprecedented endeavor that has helped to propel citizen journalism to a new level.
Cross posted at NM3
Yesterday a reporter, when interviewing me about this groundbreaking marathon of online media, asked me where I thought we will be four years from now. The only answer that I could give him was this: I don't know where we'll be six months from now, let alone in four years - but if The Big Tent is an indicator of the future strides soon to be stepped then we have now moved from a slow walk to what are now leaps and bounds towards greater transparency and access in the field of media.
And all of this would not be possible without the steadfast staff tireless toiling for the benefit of the event and for the benefit of us bloggers. I can not say thank you enough (and I probably shouldn't be expected to say thank you in a different fashion than my online format...), but I can say thank you again. And I can proudly brag for years to come that I was here in Denver, in an online stage that was unquestionably the first of its kind - absolutely unimaginable four years before, and absolutely due to the people who made it possible and not just the wires and wifi (but the bandwidth was money though...).
To the staff of The Big Tent Denver - thank you.
-Brian Devine