Because the conference will be webcast (knock wood, Murphy-willing) it should be possible for people to participate from anywhere on planet Earth. We already know of a group that will be online from Shanghai, and there are sure to be people tuning in from Europe and elsewhere.

Rebecca MacKinnon's session on International blogging is especially focused on people coming in via the webcast. If you plan to connect up over the net to the hall in Cambridge, post a message here. And make sure to check out Rebecca's session.

# Posted by Dave Winer on 4/13/04; 6:22:55 PM - --

The week before the last BloggerCon I was talking up all the people who were coming. This time, for some reason I'm not doing it, even though the list is every bit as impressive, and it's bigger.

Several recent additions: Cameron Barrett, well-known old-school A-lister, who blogged for General Clarke, and now blogs for Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry. Mathew Gross, Jim Moore and Britt Blaser from Dean For America. A reporter and photographer for the NY Times. Two evangelists from Microsoft (and a generous financial contribution from the company to help pay for refreshments at the reception on Saturday night). And (not pictured to the right) international accordion star, Joey deVilla, will play a national anthem at the opening session.

Anyway, as mid-week approaches, my main concern is that we won't have enough space for all the people who want to participate in the opening session. The room can hold about 100 people, maybe a few more. Over 400 are registered. Why do I think it might just work? Well, it starts at 8:15AM on Saturday.

In the second time slot, 9AM to 10:15AM, we have two sessions, and room for about 200. I only wanted two sessions because I want a fork, one side of the building for people who are interested in journalism and blogging, including Presidential politics and blogging outside the US, and the other for people who came to talk about features of blogging tools, infrastructure, the super-hot personal television network concept.

We may yet add a third session in the first time slot, but if so it has to be done today because the schedule freezes tomorrow so we can go to the printer (yes we use paper for this) for the handouts. If we can quickly find a discussion leader for a session on one of the following: Education, Medicine, Science, Literature or Law; and get a session description together quickly, I would amend the schedule. The discussion leader must be someone good at leading a discussion (duh) and must read and understand the guidelines. It is something the right person could do with very little prep. So if you have a suggestion for someone who could lead a discussion who is coming to the conference, please use the comments section below.

# Posted by Dave Winer on 4/13/04; 3:20:41 PM - --