Abbott and Ball confirm

Del-elect Robin Abbott (D-93rd) and Democratic candidate for Congress Krystal Ball have also confirmed that they will be attending the conference on Saturday.

The event is free and open to the public. Breakfast and Lunch will be provided.

Robinson and Rigell join speaker list

The agenda, as expected, is falling into place and we have several more great candidates visiting us this Saturday.

We will be hearing from Rep. Rob Wittman and Scott Robinson (Krystal Ball is invited) from the 1st District; Scott Rigell, Scott Taylor, Ben Loyola, and Ken Golden from the 2nd District (Rep. Glenn Nye and Chuck Smith are invited); and Coby Dillard from the 3rd District (Rep. Bobby Scott is invited).

This is in addition to our already excellent media panel of the Washington Post's Anita Kumar, the Virginian-Pilot's Julian Walker, the Daily Press' Kimball Payne, and NBC-12's Ryan Nobles, and our legal review from attorney Kevin Grierson and General Assembly preview from HRCC rep Scott Hirons.

I hope you can make it to what promises to be an exciting day. Also thanks to McGuireWoods for again sponsoring the conference.

Please tweet, blog, post, etc. and help spread the word! Twitter hashtag: #vabu; http://blogs-united.blogspot.com. Pre-registration is not required, but is requested. You can also let us know you're coming or comment about the event on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177770628150

Thanks to our sponsors, the registration fee will be waived and breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Del. Englin elected to vice chair of House Democrats

Congratulations to Blogs United board member Del. David Englin on his election to be vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus.

Englin was elected by his peers at a recent meeting of the House Democratic Caucus outside of Richmond.

Ironically, Englin was selected to fill the position of retiring Del. Kris Amundson, also a member of Blogs United Board of Directors.

Draft Agenda

Agenda is a draft and subject to change....

8 a.m. Doors open / Breakfast
9 a.m. Election-ethics review / Bloggers behaving badly (or well) / lessons-learned from 2009 - moderated by Dr. Quentin Kidd
10 a.m. Media roundtable - moderated by me
11 a.m. Rep. Rob Wittman - federal issues relating to the internet/social media and how the GOP is using social media
12 p.m. Kevin Grierson - Legal and Lunch
1 p.m. Looking ahead - covering the General Assembly and the congressional campaigns in 2010 (Scott Hirons, HRCC and Allison Jaslaw, DPVA - tentative)
2 p.m. Technology (Podcasting, Apps, Widgets, Best Practices, etc.)
3 p.m. Blogs United Business Meeting
4 p.m. Adjourn
6 p.m. - Dutch-Treat Dinner at .... TBD

Congressional candidates that have also been invited include: Scott Robinson and Krystal Ball from the 1st; Ben Loyola, Scott Rigell, Scott Taylor, Ken Golden and Chuck Smith from the 2nd District; and Coby Dillard from the 3rd.