XPAC from a Mom's Viewpoint

This last weekend, my husband and I packed up our two pre-teen daughters and took them to one of the largest conservative political conferences in the country - CPAC.

I was worried about ME keeping on track with everything the speakers threw at us (and whether or not to agree or disagree on any particular point) but I was even more worried about my girls (as in how would I join the growing number of bloggers coming in various blogging sessions and parties and still keep them entertained - my daughters, that is - not the other bloggers who were really pretty funny themselves)-- both of whom who my husband was determined needed to experience this event -- one we had never even attended ourselves.

Two things became obvious - we had choices in this incredibly massive event gathering conservative pundits from all over the country. One, make them sit in the adult sessions (rolling their eyes and falling off their chairs)- which in some cases became quite adult in conversation (ahem,. . . blogger's panel with plenty of MALE blogger humor when it didn't digress into racism, sexism or homosexuality) or have them attend the call-to-action main speakers who were often quite engaging - though most attempts at humor the my girls did hear went flying right over their head and when they heard everyone laughing at what Ann Coulter said this time, I had no time to explain before more zingers were coming out of Ann's mouth. She was a lively one, as always. Sharp but a bit vitriol (or acidic in her humor).

SO, the second option came to light when we realized - about a week before going- that we could also register for XPAC, the new student's (but really for all ages) lounge that included both special seminars for youth and tons of fun Wii and other multi-media games. XPAC was the brainchild of actor Stephen Baldwin (see below) and radio talk show host Kevin McCullough. (Check out their site www.baldwinmccullough.com). Apparently last year the two men were walking around CPAC and wanted somewhere to connect with the kids on a more personal - kid-friendly basis.

Yes, I struggle with any suggestions at "dumbing" down what the adults are learning or suggesting that the speakers at CPAC were not able to hold the attention of our media-addicted youth but I do agree that sometimes you should try to connect with kids where they are. Because the conference had so many college students attending, I would wonder what percentage chose to be in CPAC sessions they were capable of comprehending versus breaking away for a little lighter fun fare over at XPAC. That is certainly not to downplay the sessions that XPAC did hold which had solid content with their own engaging speakers - often young conservatives like Sarah Huckabee & Hannah Giles who could talk to the students peer-to-peer.

We loved the room because it was both incredibly cheap ($15 for three days including dinner two nights) and because it became like a homebase where we could chill on soft couches and talk to students about what they found most important in life (- and now, we are back to talking about cheap food but . .  . hey, that's where they are at).

 

BUT, we didn't really chill much after I finally figured out where the totally awesome blogger's lounge was which was hosted by RedState's Erick Erickson and coordinated with Lisa dePasquale, the CPAC conference organizer. I pretty much lived in there after that. If XPAC was buzzing with youthful excitement, the blogger's lounge was HOPPING with energetic writers, some as much of a newbie to the conference as myself, with various interesting characters milling in and out hoping for a blogpost and/or interview in their favor. More on this later (I am still processing video footage and books and papers given to me).

 

But, back to XPAC, I did get to interview one of the representatives from one of the sponsors of XPAC - a woman from Focus on the Family Action's Rising Voices. I love the work of Focus on the Family and wanted to highlight their new efforts in reaching out to the youth of today! More on that later. (Still working on it - between getting settled back into life here.)

We talked to briefly with Stephen Baldwin & Kevin McCullough {who were totally awesome} about their vision for XPAC but with so much going on, we didn't talk long.

Anywhoo - - once I found the Blogger's Lounge, there were plenty of people wanting interviews (including the illustrious Andrew Breitbart - love that guy!) and I will be posting those throughout the week - some over at Keystone Conservative! If you live in PA, you might want to go there to see more - even if I haven't posted yet b/c those guys are SHARP, I tell ya.

(I do want to add quickly that I met & saw some truly incredible bloggers while there -like Political Mommentary, Melissa Clouthier, and many more. So cool -I WILL BE GOING BACK and if XPAC is there, we will definitely sign up again.)