Coffee Party Convention

LIVE from Louisville, Kentucky

We have participants and guests coming from all over the country to join our mission to counter the alienating hyper-partisanship undermining our political process and address the serious problems facing our nation today.  By coming together in Louisville, we will lay the groundwork for a lasting movement to revitalize civic participation and restore balance to our political discourse.

Venue: The Galt House Hotel
140 N. Fourth Street   Louisville, KY  40202

BREAKING NEWS:

Our first national convention begins tomorrow!   We are LIVE STREAMING the convention from Louisville starting at 8:30 AM ET tomorrow (Friday). Convention participants, both in person and via webcast can interact via Twitter (#CoffeeParty), Facebook, on our convention website, main website and on our newly created Ustream channel.  We are especially excited about livestreaming the Mock Constitutional Convention on Saturday from 10:30am-4:30pm.

We are currently raising funds for the following purposes: $5,000 for Audio/Visual expenses, including production and livestreaming costs that are allowing us to document as many workshops and panel discussions as we can, which will become on-line educational tools available to the public. It would be tremendously helpful if you could donate for this. $5, $10, $20, any amount would help.

You can still register online and you can register in-person at the Galt House at our registration desk.

Stephen Kiernan, award-winning journalist and author of Last Rights and The Authentic Patriot, has confirmed as a speaker.

John Avlon of CNN/The Daily Beast and the author of Wingnuts has also confirmed.

Equal Justice, Fair Elections Party
Friday, September 24th. From 11 PM to 1 AM
Al J’s Bar on the 3rd fl of the Galt House with musicians, VIP guests, volunteers, and convention staff. Open to the public. Free to attend.

Featured Events:

“Mock Constitutional Convention“ chaired by Lawrence Lessig, Founder of Fix Congress First & Professor at Harvard Law School and Mark McKinnon, communication strategist for John McCain and George W. Bush. This is a critical response to the “Citizens United” Supreme Court Decision, and other present-day constitutional issues. You can submit and discuss amendments here: http://convention.ideascale.com/

“Across the Political Divide: A Trans-partisan Dialogue” a round table moderated by Joseph McCormick. Confirmed participants include Amy Kremer of Tea Party Express, Annabel Park of Coffee Party USA, progressive blogger Elisa Batista, Lawrence Lessig, Mark McKinnon, and a representative from Independentvoting.org.

“Federal Deficit/Budget: Three Ways of Looking at the Elephant in the Room” presented by the Josh Gordon of Concord Coalition, Heather McGhee of Demos, & Carolyn Lukensmeyer of AmericaSpeaks

“Coffee Party Music Jam” a night of live music featuring Jonny 5 of Flobots and outstanding Coffee Party members, including The Dalliance, Andres Useche, Boss-B, Robyn Mackenzie, Toni Melton and others. Click here to hear more & here for more info! FREE to the public.

Confirmed Participants include: Frances Moore Lappé, Lt. Dan Choi, John Avlon,  Stephen Kiernan, Linda Killian, David Donnelly, Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Monica Youn, Heather McGhee, Col. Morris Davis, Josh Gordon, Jeffrey Abelson, Dave Rauschkolb, Marco Ceglie, Zephyr Teachout, Bill Moyer, Rich Benjamin, Tim Karr, Gennady Kolker, James Lardner, Billy Wimsatt, John de Graaf, Eric Byler and many others (find out more on the speakers page!)

Other highlights include:

1. Training (dialogue facilitation, conflict resolution, messaging, leadership, organizing and growing chapters, applying Coffee Party methodology to political action, voter engagement, best practices from local chapters, best practices from other organizations)

2. Issues (Campaign finance reform; job creation; net neutrality; alternative energy; Citizens United; ending hyper partisanship; impact of the Gulf Oil Spill; local and green economies; anger, cynicism and the electoral process; rise of independent voters)

3. Searching for Solutions (Gross Happiness Index, Creating Local Credit Unions, Fair Elections Now Act, Citizen Oversight, Citizen Journalism)

4. General assembly on Sunday to World Cafe discussions and a straw poll vote about next steps for the Coffee Party.

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• If you need financial assistance to attend, please email us at hardship@democracymeetup.com.