BlogCon 2012: Charlotte (37 Pics)

23 Apr, 2012 by John Hawkins

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The Franklin Center and Freedomworks teamed up to put on BlogCon 2012 in the Queen City this year. They brought me in to….um, I don’t know, hang out, take pictures, cause I am that damn charming? Something — I don’t know, but I love doing these events and I’m glad they did.

Day 0: Arrival

Looked at #blogconclt agenda & was thinking “Geeze, Tabitha is lazy. This is just like the last one.” Then I realized it was the 2011 agenda

— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) April 19, 2012

On the day everyone arrived, there was nothing scheduled before Blog Bash; so I got some people together for dinner at a local wing restaurant.

Kristina Ribali, Kurt Schlichter, Irina Moises

Andrew Lawton reacts to some horrific news, perhaps that Barack Obama ate a dog, John Hawkins

James Skyles looks disgusted as he hears some appalling news, perhaps that Barack Obama ate a dog, Datechguy

Doug Ross gets punched in the face by John Sexton, who was outraged, perhaps after being told that Barack Obama ate a dog.

Datechguy, Steve Eggleston, and Kurt Schlichter, who appears to be furious, perhaps after learning that Barack Obama ate a dog.

After dinner, we headed over to Ali Akbar and Melissa Clouthier’s Blog Bash.

Jim Geraghty, Andrew Malcolm

Holly Bacon, Breeanne Howe

Maggie Thornton, Leslie Carbone

Erik Telford, Teri Christoph

Katie Pavlich, John Hawkins

Kelly Maher, Fingers Malloy

Kira Davis, Kemberlee Kayne

Katie Hedrick, Sarah Rumpf

Left my bank card in the wing restaurant. Went to get it. Ran into **shocker** bloggers in the bar. #somuchforgettingtobedearly #blogconclt

— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) April 20, 2012

Day 1: Breitbart is here

True fact. So funny. RT @johnhawkinsrwn: I just gave Tabitha Hale her Christmas card. Yes, really…

— Tabitha Hale (@TabithaHale) April 20, 2012

There were a lot of great panels on the opening day. My favorite was Lee Doren talking about YouTube. I learn a half dozen new things every time he opens his mouth on the subject. “David vs. Goliath: Slaying the Legacy Media” was also a lot of fun. That one featured James O’Keefe, Pamela Geller, John Nolte, and Jon Fleischman.

Kira Davis, Pamela Geller

At #BlogConCLT sitting behind @johnhawkinsrwn . Yeah he looks good from behind.

— Kira Ayn Davis (@kiradavis422) April 20, 2012

Pamela Geller, John Hawkins

We also got to see part of an unfinished Andrew Breitbart movie project. It was impressive.

I generally find political documentaries to be dull, but what I’ve seen of “Occupy Unmasked” bit.ly/ykSyX6 is very good. #BlogConCLT

— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) April 20, 2012

Afterwards, there was a presentation for Team Breitbart.

Here are a few other pics from the day’s events.

Surprised Liz Mair is SUPRISED!

Disapproving Liz Mair is DISAPPROVING!

Liz Mair, April Gregory, Irina Moises

Neri Martinez, Jerri Ann Henry

Francesca Chambers, Alexa Shrugged, Katrina Rice

Shhhhh … I took two #BlogConCLT t-shirts … because Freedom Badger don’t care!

— AlexaShrugged (@AlexaShrugged) April 20, 2012

After the day’s festivities ended, there was a Freedomworks candidate reception. Sean Bielat, who has an excellent opportunity to beat a Kennedy for Barney Frank’s seat, was the biggest name candidate in the room.

Amelia Hamilton, Tabitha Hale

Somebody from The Blacksphere, Kevin Jackson

Melissa Clouthier, Cheryl Prater

After the candidate reception, everyone rolled into a local BBQ joint and took it over for dinner. For some reason, every Yankee at the event was DYING to eat some AUTHENTIC North Carolina BBQ. Apparently “real” North Carolina BBQ is vinegar based or uh…not vinegar based, or something. I’ve only lived in the Carolinas my whole life and I’ve never heard anybody who lives here going on and on about BBQ. Of course, maybe we do and everyone just talks about it at the Nascar races that I don’t attend, so who knows? Anyway, after dinner, I decided not to go to the 10:00 P.M. cab ride away, karaoke event. Still, it’s hard for me to go from point A to point B at one of these events without running into other bloggers, usually in the hotel bar, and chatting for a while before I make it up to my room.

The 7 Reasons You Will Never Be As Cool As @JohnHawkinsRWN #BlogConCLT bit.ly/JgosaN #tcot (uh oh, just thought of #8)

— Doug Ross (@directorblue) April 21, 2012

Mandy Nagy, Kira Davis

Chris Loesch, Dana Loesch, Steven Crowder.

Day 2: Pitching, Bowling, And Lawyering

So, no Occupy dirt hippies are showing up at #blogconclt ? I guess the Occupy movement must be dead in Charlotte. Victory by default for 1%

— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) April 21, 2012

For the second day in a row, there were lots of great panels. I got some great ideas from “Pitching and promoting your work” which featured Liz Mair, Guy Benson, and Tony Katz. Stephen Moore also did a magnificent speech with some great information in it.

“In just four years we’ve borrowed more in four years than we did from 1776 to 2005.” — Stephen Moore #BlogConCLT

— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) April 21, 2012

The bottom 40% have a net tax liability of zero. The bottom 50% pay 2.2%. The top 50% pay 97.8%. — Stephen Moore #BlogCongclt

— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) April 21, 2012

Best case scenario, people under 30 will get back 70 cents for every dollar they put into Social Security — Stephen Moore #BlogConCLT

— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) April 21, 2012

Kurt Schlichter, James Skyles, and Emily Zanotti did a particularly useful panel on legal issues.

Mandy Nagy and Brandon Darby did a useful, in depth presentation on “Opposition Research: Digging up the Dirt.”

I don’t want to slight the other people who spoke because there were no bad speakers, but those were the ones that really stood out for me. Here are a few pictures taken during the day.

Tabitha Hale, Kurt Schlichter

April Gregory

I don’t know whose decision it was to give a bunch of overly-caffeinated bloggers a ton of sugar, but I SALUTE YOU. #blogconclt

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) April 21, 2012

Deneen Borelli, Lindsay Hollandsworth

Deneen Borelli, John Hawkins

Kemberlee Kayne, Kristina Ribali

Jerome Hudson, Stephen Kruiser, Javier Manjarres

Brandon Darby, Kathleen McKinley

Dana Loesch’s tattoo.

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. — Ephesians 6:12-13

That night, we finished the conference off — officially — with a little pizza and bowling.

John Hawkins, Steven Crowder

mosesmosesmoses, Nice Deb

Emily Zanotti prepares to bowl two straight gutter balls, undoubtedly on purpose, in order to spare me the humiliation of coming in dead last (I bowled once in high school before this) while Jerome Hudson Tebow’s after bowling a strike.

This year’s BlogCon didn’t turn out to be as eventful as last year’s event, since the Charlotte Occulosers weren’t on the ball enough to crash the event, but it was still an outstanding event that was extremely useful to the bloggers who attended. Much thanks to the Franklin Center, Freedomworks, Erik Telford, and Tabitha Hale for putting on the event!

Also see,

The First Inaugural BlogCon 2010 (27 Pics)
BlogCon 2011: Denver (45 Pics)