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| CA Delegate Bash |
Well, the morning came way too early since the evening ended way too late (see picture to the left). I had already decided on skipping the CA delegation breakfast in the morning (although I would have loved to see Debbie Wasserman Schultz) in favor of attending yet another Bloomberg event, this one titled "The Internet, Jobs and The Economy" Featuring Sen Mark Begich (D-AK), Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-CT) and Austan Goolsbee, Prof of Economics at Univ of Chicago's Booth School of Business and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers for Pres Obama. What a fascinating discussion about the impacts of the internet and technology on businesses and the global marketplace. If anyone is interested in seeing this event, the video is at (http://www.bloomberg.com/video/begich-whitehouse-malloy-goolsbee-on-tech-jobs-9dE8gbufRRSX3gVbGkUkNw.html). Any of the other events I attended can be found at Bloomberg.com and searching for one of the individuals that participated. I was going to attend one more in the afternoon (Unleashing the New Energy Economy w/ Gov Ritter (CO) and Sen Wyden (OR) but I was worried about getting to the convention hall too late so I passed.
Like any other day in Charlotte, it was hot and humid with a constant threat of rain showers and thunderstorms. Unlike any other day in Charlotte, there was a noticeable increase in the security around town. Cops on bikes, motorcycles, horses, automobiles and on foot, from all over the country (these guys were from Atlanta). Secret Service everywhere (and those were just the ones you could see). Places where you could go earlier in the week were now blocked off. And then just when you thought you had it figured out, something would happen (for instance, a protest) and change things around. As I mentioned in a tweet, I had my credentials checked 4 times BEFORE I got to the security checkpoint.
I got to the TWCA before 3 pm and I'm really glad I did. While earlier in the week the arena filled up slowly, today again was different. Lots of people wanted to make sure they had seats for the evenings speakers and entertainers, and the fire marshall had shut down the arena the day before due to reaching capacity. They were also tightly controlling floor access; only delegates and media were allowed as they didn't want to exceed capacity. And even with all that going on, the security people and volunteers were some of the nicest, most helpful people I've met at any big event. They all did Charlotte proud, no matter where they were from.
So I'm not even sitting down with my fellow delegates when a runner from CNN comes up to me and asks "Would you like to be on TV? We're getting people together that have on red/white/blue hats and shirts." Hesitating at first, I then said "sure" and proceeded on over to find Kyra Phillips, a HLN reporter who had gathered many of us and was including us in a live feed that was discussing the collection of convention memorabilia with 2 guys from the Smithsonian. And here we are. I haven't been able to find the video, but if I do I'll be sure to post that as well later. And while I was busy doing this, others from CD33 were busy talking with KABC Los Angeles about their experiences at the convention and what they were expecting from tonight's speech.
There's so much to talk about that I've decided to break up Day 5 into 2 separate blogs (at least). Part 2, which will discuss some of the more memorable moments from the nights speeches and entertainers will be posted shortly.
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