If you’re not able to make it to Providence for this year’s convention, there’s another way you can follow the action from home. Starting Saturday, 6/9 at 1p.m. ET, you’ll be able to listen to the conference on SiriusXM Left (channel 127).

SiriusXM’s special coverage will include broadcasts of panels, keynotes and discussions. The coverage will kick off on Thursday, 6/7 with live broadcasts of The Michelangelo Signorile Show on SiriusXM OutQ channel 108 at 2p.m. ET, and Make It Plain with Mark Thompson on SiriusXM Left channel 127 at 6p.m. ET.

SiriusXM’s 24 hour Netroots Nation Radio “takeover” will debut immediately following a special Netroots Nation edition of Media Matters Radio on SiriusXM Left channel 127 at 10a.m. ET on Saturday, 6/9.

Each year, some of the brightest minds in progressive politics come together at Netroots Nation. Our 70+ panels and keynotes touch on the most important progressive issues of today. The ideas that come out of these sessions have the potential to affect change in the public sphere in a big way.

If you’ve ever been to the conference or followed the Twitter hashtag from home, you’ve probably noticed the extreme volume of posts during the event. The thousands of bloggers, organizers and tech-savvy activists in attendance aren’t shy about tweeting their thoughts and feelings about what’s happening.

We’re always looking for new ways to tell the story of Netroots Nation to folks who aren’t able to be here in person. This year we’re trying something new: we’ll be using Storify to tell the social story of the conference. A team of bloggers will be helping us update panel and keynote pages with tweets, videos and photos highlighting memorable moments and big ideas from each session after they happen.

So, if you’re following along from home, check out the panel page after the session to see what happened.

If you want smart discussion on strategic organizing, fighting back and pushing progressive policy, we’ve got a great week in store for you.

So, welcome to Netroots Nation 2012! Whether it’s your first time attending or your seventh, you’ll meet fellow activists, learn from each other and leave recharged for the coming year.

BEFORE YOU ARRIVE
We’ve got an exciting four days planned for you, with 70 panels, 30 training sessions, a screening series and tons of parties and events. We hope this preview e-mail will help you plan your week and ensure that you have a great experience. You’ll receive a program once you arrive, but you can plan your weekend in advance with our online agenda or browse the program online.

If you haven’t already downloaded our Netroots Nation 2012 mobile app, you can download it here. The free app (thanks to American Federation of Teachers) allows you to browse the schedule of events; create your personal schedule for the weekend and–more importantly–connect with fellow attendees before, during and after the conference.

WHEN YOU GET HERE
The registration desk will be open Wednesday from 2 to 6 p.m. if you’re in town early. Otherwise, you can pick up your credentials Thursday starting at 8 a.m. Registration is located in the Rhode Island Convention Center on the 3rd floor.

Don’t miss all the Wednesday welcome parties! The Real Romney Tour, hosted by Boston’s Jeff Santos, kicks off at 5 p.m. in the Convention Center in Ballroom D/E (details). Then, swing over to the Netroots Welcome to Providence Happy Hour, hosted by Working RI starting at 6:30 p.m. in the Rotunda of the Convention Center (details). And then you can find several late-night options to suit the your taste (details).

After all the sessions, be sure to check out all the parties and social events being hosted by Netroots Nation and our sponsors. There’s also a huge list of unofficial events going on this week.

BEFORE YOU GO HOME
If you’re staying in the Westin or Biltmore hotels, you’re staying at a union hotel. Let’s all live our values and support the working class. The workers who clean your room each day have an incredibly hard and often thankless job. You can show your appreciation and support working families in a big way by tipping $3-5 per day (more if you decline service until the end of your stay). Make sure to leave your tip with a note so the staff doesn’t think you forgot your cash.

If you’re able to stick around on Sunday, join us for our third annual Netroots Nation service project. This year, we’ll be cleaning up at the historic Roger Williams Park, then getting a tour of the state-of-the-art Save the Bay facility overlooking Narragansett Bay. Plan to meet at 9 a.m. in front of the main entrance to the Westin (transportation and lunch is provided, RSVP required). We’ll be joined by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rep. Jim Langevin, Rep. David Cicilline and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras.

Can’t make it to the Day of Service but still want to give back? Thanks to Rally.org, you can make a donation to Clean Water Action and Save the Bay and help two great organizations continue the work of protecting Rhode Island’s environment. Click here to donate.

Finally, as you’re experiencing and sharing all the happenings in Providence, be sure to tag your Tweets, posts and photos with the #NN12 hashtag. If you are staying in the Westin or Biltmore, wifi is complimentary in your room (at the Westin it will appear as if you are purchasing it, but it won’t show up on your bill). And as always, wifi in the Netroots Nation areas of the Convention Center is provided at no charge to you courtesy of Communications Workers of America.

See you very soon!

Raven, Nolan, Mary, Karen, Eric, Melissa, Navi and Carolyn

Troy Davis. Oscar Grant. Trayvon Martin. Police brutality at Occupy encampments around the country. You’ve seen all this and more in the news over the past year. But it’s been going on for decades unchecked (and unnoticed by many progressives).

Policies ranging from Stop and Frisk to Stand Your Ground are not only creating a culture of fear in our country, but a second social class. The systemic problems that exist are often borne of old-fashioned bigotry and prejudice.

At Netroots Nation we pride ourselves on pushing activists to think bigger about their activism and bring new fights into the national debate. We have some questions to ponder: How can we educate others on the role that race plays in our current judicial system? How do we end the cycle of violence that plagues so much of urban America and promote uplifting alternatives to violence and incarceration? And how can the progressive community join with social and racial justice organizations to empower communities—and change a system that essentially undermines social movements and threatens progressive power?

On Saturday, June 9 from noon to 1:15 p.m., we invite you to join us for a lunch-time conversation about criminal justice in America. We’re honored to be joined by progressive luminaries Jakada Imani of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Nicole Austin-Hillery of the Brennan Center for Justice and Rashad Robinson of Color of Change. We’ll also be treated to a special performance by Jasiri X.

If you care about a just and equitable society and building progressive power, this is a session you can’t miss.

Friday night at 6pm, Netroots Nation is giving something new a try: Ignite. At Ignite events, presenters give five-minute speeches with 20 slides that advance automatically every 15 seconds.

Attendees will hear from speakers like Darcy Burner, Arshad Hasan, Justin Krebs, and Stephanie Taylor. Hot topics include:

• How a pitcher of beer demonstrates what’s best about progressive politics.
• If we’re so rich in ideas and stuff, why are we so poor and scared now?
• Key principles and practices that are traditionally used in anarchist organizing, but can be powerful if used by progressives.
• The current state of queer media and its future.
• How I learned about power in the context of organizing, how to take down a dictator, how to do it over and over again, and how all of us have the potential to be David to their Goliath.

NN12 is just days away! We’ve been getting some great coverage in the local press as Providence gears up to host the conference.

The Providence Journal featured a front page story about NN12 that included some high praise for the Netroots from Providence mayor Angel Taveras.

Mayor Angel Taveras said it’s an honor “to host the best minds in America’s progressive movement.” He added, “Netroots will play an important role in November as our nation makes a choice to move forward or go back, and Providence is very pleased to be at the center of the conversation about how we can build on the work we have accomplished in the last four years.”

Check out an excerpt of the article online, or pick up a copy of the paper for the full piece.

GoLocalProv’s got a piece on our own “PowerPlayer” Mary Rickles. If you’re still on the fence about attending, this is definitely worth a read.

The Boston Phoenix has two features about Netroots Nation, including one on the impact of the netroots and Netroots Nation on the November election, and a guide to NN12.

As David Scharfenberg says, “So many panels, so many receptions, so many opportunities to get filthy drunk.” The guide touches on agenda highlights, the netroots and Occupy relationship, local politics and more.

The Phoenix also had two sidebar pieces: one about the impact of SOPA and PIPA on American politics and one about Elizabeth Warren.

We’ll see you in Providence in just a couple of days! If you haven’t registered yet, there’s still time. Register online today.

Photo Credit: Marta Evry

In just four short days, we’ll be kicking off our seventh annual conference. We’re finalizing a few remaining details in these final days, so be sure to check our site and mobile app for the latest session, speakers and special events.

We’re pleased to announce that Saturday night’s opening keynote will be anchored by activist and Rebuild the Dream co-founder Van Jones. We’ll also hear from NAACP President Benjamin T. Jealous, Congressman David Cicilline (RI-01), Carol Shea-Porter, Rhode Island State Representative Teresa Tanzi and Chuck Rocha. The evening will be emceed by comedian and writer Elon James White.

Plus, you won’t want to miss the announcement of our 2013 dates and venue during the closing program.

Throughout the weekend, we’ll be joined by numerous progressive leaders and elected officials including Elizabeth Warren, Van Jones, NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Sen. Jack Reed, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Ben Cardin, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, Rep. Mazie Hirono, Darcy Burner, Rep. Keith Ellison, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Rep. David Cicilline, Rep. Jim Langevin, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, environmentalist Bill McKibben, NEA’s Lily Eskelsen, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Cecile Richards, White House LGBT liaison Gautam Raghavan, Eric Greigo, Lori Saldana, Diane Ravitch, and Lani Guinier.

This year’s conference includes 70 panels on topics like the 2012 elections, the Occupy movement and reproductive rights, plus we’ll highlight state battles on issues like immigration and labor. We’ll also have 30 hands-on training sessions led by some of the top trainers in the progressive movement, plus caucuses, film screenings, tons of social events and our biggest crowd ever. You can check out our full agenda here.

If you haven’t registered yet, there’s still time. See you in a few days!

We’re exactly one week out from Netroots Nation 2012 and you can almost cut the excitement in the air with a knife. We’ve of course got lots of great sessions to attend that’ll inspire, challenge and inform you. But we’ve talked plenty about those so far.

We’ve got an unprecedented number of parties being organized for this year. Here’s what you need to know.

You can find official special events, some of which are sponsored parties, on our official agenda here. But what you may not know is that the American Federation of Teachers is once again keeping track of all the other parties at Netroots Nation. You’ll find everything from small happy hours to welcome parties organized by locals. They call it the AFTer Party list and you can access it from our mobile app.

If you’d like to check it out from your desktop, just click here. And don’t forget if you’re organizing something, you can submit it as well from a link on that page and it will be included.

Thanks to the generous support of American Federation of Teachers, we’re able to offer our hit mobile app again at Netroots Nation 2012. It’s available on the iPhone, Android and Blackberry platforms—and for the first time, there is a special HD version for the iPad. You can find it by heading to your app store and searching for “Netroots Nation.” On the Blackberry platform download it directly from here.

Once you’ve downloaded it, here are a few things you’ll want to check out:

Personalized schedule
You can browse our schedule in a variety of ways: by day, by topic, by session type, by speaker and by what’s happening now. The same information on our website is available, including speaker bios and photos when supplied. But more importantly you can mark sessions as favorites to create your own personalized schedule. This can be accessed in a special schedule view or simply as a list.

Sponsors and exhibitors
Netroots Nation wouldn’t be possible without the support of all of the sponsors and exhibitors we recruit each year. But in addition to financial support, they also do awesome things. You can easily access descriptions and see who will be there, and if they’re an exhibitor easily locate their booth in our exhibit hall.

Connect with other attendees
Right after you sign in you should click the “Contacts” icon and go to “Edit your contact info.” You can choose what information is available for others when shared. Under the “attendees” section you can choose others to share your information with by clicking their record. On the iPhone you can also import all the contacts you collected right into your address book.

Maps
The app contains maps of the exhibit hall, the convention center and an area map with the location of the convention center, official hotels and the official off-site events. It’ll help orient you so you won’t ever wonder where you need to go. There will also be ample signage in the convention center and you can also ask anyone in a volunteer T-shirt for help.

Rating sessions
If you click any session in the schedule you’ll notice that can click 1 to 5 stars for each session. This is just a quick and easy way to rate the sessions you’re attending. If you really loved it, rate it 5 stars. After everything is over, this will give us some indication as to what kinds of sessions were most successful.

Other goodies
There are a number of other goodies in the app to discover.

• Twitter is a big part of Netroots Nation, and it’s tied into this application so you can tweet about sessions and follow the #nn12 hashtag.
• We’ll have a lot of authors in attendance at Netroots Nation. If you want to purchase their books, be sure to check out the virtual bookstore icon. Many authors will be selling books on site and signing them as well. Be sure to look out for the author signing schedule, to be distributed at the registration desk.
• We’ve got a donate icon this year in the app and if you’d like to support our work we’d appreciate anything you’re willing to give.
• And finally, an icon will be revealed on Saturday with information on the NN13 location!

If you experience any problems with the app, just approach our registration desk or any volunteer for help.

The 99 percent have taken to the streets in unprecedented numbers yet we haven’t seen this outcry reflected in the policies in Washington, where conventional wisdom lands somewhere between the status quo and austerity. The middle class continues to shrink and the poor get poorer, while the wealthiest continue to prosper and skirt the rules.

Perhaps no one breaks these issues down better than Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman. That’s why we’re thrilled to have him anchoring an economic keynote on Saturday morning, along with the AFL-CIO’s Rich Trumka; the Agenda Project’s Erica Payne; and Ai-jen Poo, National Domestic Workers Alliance director and one of Time’s 2012 100 Most Influential People in the World.

If you haven’t yet registered for Netroots Nation 2012, click here to do it now.

During this session moderated by Demos’ Heather McGhee, speakers will discuss what our economic outlook looks like and get us thinking about what our progressive vision for it should be. How do we free ourselves from what Krugman says can only be called a depression? And what role do we as activists, bloggers and labor organizers play in ensuring economic success and equality?

In addition to these speakers, you’ll also hear from progressive champions like Elizabeth Warren, Van Jones and Bill McKibben; candidates including Rep. Tammy Baldwin, Eric Greigo and Lori Saldana; and tons of our elected leaders: NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Sen. Jack Reed, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Ben Cardin, Rep. Mazie Hirono, Rep. Keith Ellison, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Rep. David Cicilline and more.

Be sure to check out our full agenda, now updated with times, to see the panels, trainings and other events on tap.

See you in a couple of weeks!

P.S. Paul Krugman will be signing his new book, “End This Depression Now”, immediately following the keynote in our exhibit hall author signing area.