(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

Last night, I went to Colorado Springs to attend a couple of events for the planning of the upcoming State Convention and Assembly there on May 16-17. What is happening is pretty incredible.

I first attended an informational meeting held by a group of local businesspeople who are looking to really showcase Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region as Democrats arrive in May. They have all sorts of events planned. In particular, they are working on three tours (so far) — a tour of “progressive Colorado Springs,” including open space areas and areas of interest to progressives (sending the message that not all of El Paso County is a monolithic “Focus on the Family” group); a tour of the many El Paso County military installations, led by former 5th CD candidate Jay Fawcett; and a tour of the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. They are also working on arranging for a “Progressive Night for Progressives,” featuring a street party with a “progressive dinner” — food from several different restaurants downtown. There is an incredibly intense interest in showing Colorado Democrats a good time when they visit Colorado Springs.

In addition to those efforts, the local Democrats and the State Party are working hard to make sure that delegates and alternates are treated well, and plans are being made to do just that. After leaving the first meeting, I attended a meeting of local committee chairs. As I told the committee last night, there is simply no way we can over-estimate the crowds we will see in May. Plans are being made to double the estimates of the crowds we usually have (and the crowds we usually have are pretty big), but we really could see a lot more than that even. We are working to make sure that the State Party learns from the crowds seen on caucus night and at the county assemblies, and that we make sure that the plans are in place to deal with those crowds effectively and efficiently.

There are a number of efforts already underway. We have a committee working to ensure that transportation issues within Colorado Springs are handled well. Another committee is focusing on accessibility issues, and working to keep focused on planning for delegates and alternates with disabilities. Yet another committee is working to be sure that registration runs smoothly; another committee is focused on being certain delegates and alternates are warmly welcomed to Colorado Springs and questions are answered quickly (and correctly). We even have a committee focused entirely on “greening” the convention — making sure our efforts are as environmentally-friendly as possible. And that’s just a handful of the committees. The planning is going very well!

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A couple of days ago, I mentioned the Denver Film Society’s “Cinemocracy” efforts in conjunction with the National Convention. Well, the Host Committee has issued a press release this morning with more details. Here is some of that release:

Building upon the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee’s Call to Democracy effort, the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs (DOCA) and Denver Film Society (DFS), producers of the Starz Denver Film Festival, are pleased to announce the creation and launch of the Cinemocracy Film Festival, an open source film festival to coincide with the 2008 Democratic National Convention. As an official event of the Host Committee, Cinemocracy calls for open participation in the political process.

Info at a Glance:

– 2008 Cinemocracy Film Festival addresses the topic of “How do you define Democracy?”
– Top-ranked films will be publicly screened in Denver during the week of the 2008 Democratic National Convention (August 25-28).
– For submission guidelines and official rules, visit www.denverfilm.org/cinemocracy.

During a year of monumental change, the Host Committee, DOCA and DFS invite citizens of the world to speak out and share ideas on what democracy is (or isn’t) through the creation of short films. All films submitted via free upload will be judged by the online public and the top 10 will be screened at a free public event in Denver during the week of Aug. 25-28.

Additionally, the winning film will be screened as part of the official program of the 31st Starz Denver Film Festival (November 13-23). The film festival is one of many events planned that underscore the Host Committee’s Call to Democracy efforts, encouraging public engagement and civic awareness in the democratic process.

Submitted films can be up to five minutes long and can be uploaded from March 1 through July 15 to www.denverfilm.org/cinemocracy. Voting will remain open until Aug. 1.

If you’re an amateur (or maybe even better-than-amateur) film-maker, take a look at this and do your submission ASAP. And, heck, you might even see your submission in May at the State Convention if you get things done and submitted early enough! I have had a preliminary discussion with the Denver Film Society, and we may be able to show a few of their submissions at the State Convention on May 17 (if you attended the State Convention in 2004, you may recall we used some Moveon.org submissions in a similar contest during that convention).

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 11:25 am and is filed under CDP, National Convention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.