The Bridging The Gap Women’s Summit For 2013 (11 Pictures)

The Bridging The Gap Women’s Summit For 2013 (11 Pictures)

The first “Bridging The Gap” Women’s Summit was on Saturday. It was an intriguing concept: an invite-only conservative women’s conference where different ideas are tested in preparation for a larger annual event that will be rolling out to the general public next. To the best of my knowledge, I was the only male invitee, which is quite flattering.

Even though the crowd was only about 150 people, there was an impressive roster of speakers and panelists including Ann Coulter, Dana Loesch, Star Parker, Jenny Beth Martin, Sharon Day, Renee Ellmers, Marsha Blackburn & Kay Granger among other others.

The format was a little unusual. There was an opening speaker for each panel (Coulter, Parker, Loesch & Day) and afterwards, each speaker stuck around and participated in a panel while an artist “drew” the speech and the conversation.

The core concept of the summit was to “bridge the gap” between Republicans and women. There were certain over-arching themes that kept coming up.

* Bring prominent Republican women out front to talk about women’s issues like abortion, birth control, or “the war on women.”
* Don’t expect women to come to you; reach out to women.
* Be more personable, emotional and responsive in reaching out to women.
* Simplify the message and use more examples that are relevant to people’s lives.

This seems like Politics 101, but sadly it’s really good advice for the Republican Party’s leadership, which tells you a lot about why the GOP has been under-performing of late.

Rather than give you a detailed breakdown of everything that was said, from here on out, the rest of the post will be a mixture of quotable tweets and pictures. As an extra added bonus, the picture versions of the speeches will open up into much larger versions if you click on them.

Enjoy.

Coulter steps to the podium

Coulter steps to the podium

Ann Coulter speaks with the artist draws behind her.

Ann Coulter speaks while the artist draws behind her.

A close-up from the drawn part of Coulter's speech

A close-up from the drawn part of Coulter’s speech

Star Parker and John Hawkins

Star Parker and John Hawkins

Renee Ellmers & Marsha Blackburn

Renee Ellmers & Marsha Blackburn

Dana Loesch & John Hawkins

Dana Loesch & John Hawkins

Dana Loesch

This was a fantastic event. Kudos to Karen Floyd, LaDonna Riggs and the rest of the ladies at Palladian View for putting it on.

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