Liveblogging Power Shift '09 day 3: talking town halls

We just wrapped up a work shop here at Power Shift called "Propel Your Community's Energy with a Town Hall Forum." The workshop, moderated by Focus the Nation's Alex Tinker and featuring FTN's Garrett Brennan, Brian Wagner and our own Adi Nochur, walked participants through the ins and outs of organizing a successful town hall meeting.

Adi talked about the recently-launched Climate Precinct Captains program and how town halls fit into this organizing model. Brian, a former Hill staffer, gave some pointers on how to get Members of Congress to attend a town hall--don't ask them to stay the whole day; reach out to people they know and trust; be persistent but not hounding, etc.

Garrett gave us some advice on how to get the media' attention for an event. He walked us through his 'inverted pyramid' model for press releases and his 'big fish-little fish' media theory; both are too lengthy for me to explain here using my little iPhone, but I took some pics of his dazzling artwork you can check out later today on Flickr.