It was about this time last year that conservative bloggers like myself began to ask why liberals were doing such a better job online, particularly in terms of raising money but also on messaging and activism. Those threads have largely disappeared, in part because of advances by conservatives (Slatecard and Rightroots to name a couple) as well as better communication among conservative bloggers and technologists.

At the Politics Online Conference last year, Townhall’s Matt Lewis questioned why conservatives weren’t taking a more active role by attending conferences like this one where they could “learn from experts about how to use the internet more effectively.” Lewis observed that liberals dominated the conference, both in terms of attendees and during the awards’ presentation. If 90% of life is just showing up, then there was no excuse for conservatives in Washington to skip a conference a few blocks away.

Lewis’ criticism got me thinking that I should be doing more to encourage conservatives to take an active role in gatherings like this conference. So last summer I sat down with Julie Barko Germany of the Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet to talk about how the Heritage Foundation could play a role at this year’s conference.

With the conference kicking off this morning at the Renaissance Hotel, I’m pleased to report that conservatives won’t be as outnumbered as last year. As part of Heritage’s silver sponsorship, Julie and I worked out a deal to get a dozen extra tickets (in addition to the four that came with the package) to provide a few of Heritage’s friends and allies in the movement an opportunity to attend the conference.

The arrangement meant that I could invite online innovators from organizations such as Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, National Taxpayers Union, American Solutions, Media Research Center and Family Research Council. Three others from Heritage will also be attending.

This year when Matt Lewis looks around, I hope he spots a few more conservatives in the crowd.