State party staffers from across the country work together and with leaders of the online world to bring focus to online organizing, communications and marketing for stronger online plans and parties.

State party staffers from 22 states around the country spent the last two days working with leaders of the online community and each other to discuss best practices for a variety of online initiatives. The conference, designed to touch on a sampling of the key strategies and tactics needed to meet an online goal, covered a broad range of topics and used real-world examples to demonstrate effectiveness and give background on what had been tried by campaigns and states up to this point. By sharing, discussing and learning from this knowledge, state parties will take back the best of the information and apply it so it is most effective for their state efforts.

State parties spent the last part of the session building a four-month online plan that integrated everything they had been discussing over the two-day forum. Each small group worked to build an online plan that would either grow their list, raise a certain amount of money or accomplish a level of activist action while accommodating the everyday state party needs. A staffer from the Michigan Democratic Party mentioned that it was "very helpful to actually work through this type of plan."

The success of our first online technology conference is just the beginning. As we move forward, we will offer more of these types of programs that will build on and expand the components that were most helpful to the state parties. In addition, we will continue to work with states one-on-one when needed.