What's new at this year's No Kill Conference in Washington, D.C.? Most of the people.
For the last three years, this conference was limited to 300 attendees. This year, it was expanded to accomodate 800, and as a consequence, around 70 percent of the people here are at their first conference.
Some of that has been bad, because people are reacting to some of the most basic concepts of the No Kill Movement with shock and disbelief, making a lot of "grumpy old-timers" mutter things under our breath about "Why are you reinventing the wheel?" and "Have you even read Redemption"?
But it's also exciting to see so many newcomers, and get fresh perspectives. It's even good, I think, to be challenged on our basics, as it helps us understand how we're doing with our movement communications.
It also led me to make some last minute revisions to my presentation, which I'll be giving right after lunch today -- in an hour, in fact. I'm talking about how we can get the media to take our cause seriously, with a focus on activism but also on how rescue groups and shelters can get media attention for the fundraising and other traditional events and initiatives.
So I missed the first session this morning, and instead holed up at the Starbucks next door, working on my presentation. Nothing like a little last minute revision to keep you sharp, if by "sharp" you mean "on edge."
So I won't be live-blogging until 3 PM Eastern, when I'll be covering John Sibley's " session on "Advocacy Blogging." See you then!
Note: You can see yesterday's liveblogging here.
It was my first time attending the conference, but the steps of the no kill equation are not new to me. I did notice some gasps from attendees when speakers would mention things like "perhaps you don't need to do home visits" or "you can trust the public, let's get these dogs into homes now!" But I think that's OK. It just shows that people are learning.
Posted by: Lindsay | 13 August 2012 at 03:13 PM