The John Locke Foundation held its first blog conference yesterday in Greensboro, Carolina FreedomNet. Scott Johnson of Power Line gave the keynote speech and kept conference goers riveted with his lawyerly account of Sept. 9, 2004, the day the Dan Rather fake Texas Air National Guard documents were exposed.

Mary Katharine Ham has a long post with links to accounts by bloggers who attended and also accounts from our panelists.

The John Locke Foundation’s Mitch Kokai has posted some video excerpts from our first panel, on local vs. global blogging, and second panel, on blogs and politics.

In addition to some great insights from our panelists and questioners, the event allowed many bloggers who knew each other only via emails and comments on their blog posts to get together socially. It also allowed us all to come away feeling that Scott Johnson, in addition to being one of the nation’s best bloggers (his blog is ranked by Playboy Magazine as one of the top 10 political blogs), he’s also one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.

One of the highlights for Scott and our panelists were the two sisters who flew up from New Port Richey, Fla., just for the chance to meet some of their favorite bloggers. Here’s what Scott posted about them on Saturday:

Last night I met sisters Abby Misemer and Missy Nurrenbrock of New Port Richey, Florida. They are huge Power Line fans who read about the conference here when I first noted it August and flew up to attend. They are the most attentive, appreciative and observant readers I have ever met. Having read the site faithfully for several years, they know me about as well as my family.

Abby explained to me that they had been thinking about doing one of the National Review Online cruises to meet some of their favorite commentators but, since cruises take so much time, the visit to Carolina FreedomNet seemed the perfect alternative. After the event they rented a car and headed to the North Carolina mountains. I hope the weather is good to them.

I agree with the many who told me after the event, “Let’s do this again!”