“iDiplomacy seeks to empower citizens and the private sector to participate in public diplomacy through direct communication and engagement with foreign publics. iDiplomacy supports American ideals, and often but not necessarily American foreign policy goals.”

The attendees introduced themselves. Here are a few of the comments:

Bert Calland, retired Navy Vice Admiral, now at CACI, says we “Gotta prevent the 5-year-olds from becoming the 15-year-olds that strap on the suicide bomb.”

Duncan MacInnes, State Department, “I won the Cold War… and quickly lost the War on Terror.”

Paula Trimble, DOD, “I looked at the attendance list and thought there weren’t too many dudes at all.”

Jennifer Bryson, Witherspoon Institute (think tank in Princeton, N.J.): looks at media produced by progressive Muslims – both creative and non-fiction. “The content is there, the real problem is the media’s not moving into key target audiences.”

Mark Haselton, Wexford Group International, a CACI subsidiary, quoted Gen. McCrystal: “You can’t kill your way out of the wars that we’re right in now. You have to find a way to change the dialogue.”

You can also see bios for chairman Ben Riley and presenters Rosa Brooks and Warren Wright under “conference information.”