An apology

Here at Netroots Nation, we value all of our speakers and attendees. We work hard every year to ensure that, behind the scenes, all moving parts are coming together seamlessly into the nation’s largest gathering of progressive activists, organizers, nonprofits and candidates. Unfortunately, we made a mistake during the planning and prep process and inadvertently listed PaKou Her as a panelist on a session instead of Pakou Hang. Both women are amazing activists and we wish to extend our sincerest apologies for this error. We deeply regret the hurt caused to Ms Her, Ms Hang and to the Asian American community that we treasure at NN. We’ve made the correction on our agenda and have reached out to both of them to do all we can to make things right.

This incident has caused us to take another hard look at our workflow next year to make sure that this doesn’t happen again, including confirming each speaker’s first name, last name and organization in writing. We also plan to reach out directly to each proposed panelist earlier in the planning process to help ensure that future mistakes are avoided.

In closing, we want to thank both PaKou Her and Pakou Hang for all they have brought to the Netroots community today and in the future. We welcome any counsel from them and from our community at large on how we can create the most positive experience possible as we continue to expand Netroots’ impact.