Why Everyone Remembers Their First Summer Conference

By Elissa Tennant

Do you remember what it was like to come to your first CCL Summer Conference? 

Maybe you remember your first keynote speaker, or the first new person you met. Maybe you remember looking around the Omni at the groups of CCLers prepping for their lobby meetings. Or maybe you’ll never quite forget the feeling of what it was like to step into the halls of Congress for the very first time. 

There’s nothing quite like your first national conference experience. You may enter feeling nervous or unsure, but you’ll leave feeling bold, empowered, and ready for anything. If you can meet with our nation’s leaders in D.C., you can definitely hold meaningful climate conversations back home.

To commemorate the feeling of your first conference, we asked a few veteran CCLers to tell us about their first experience in D.C. The answers far exceeded our expectations. Take a look at their answers in the clips below (you won’t want to miss the last one).

CCL’s annual Summer Conference and Lobby Day is fast approaching. Whether it’s your first experience or your fifteenth, we hope you will join us July 26-28 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. This year, keynote speaker Jigar Shah, energy entrepreneur and host of the Energy Empire and Open Circuit podcasts, will help us prepare for a successful day of lobby meetings on Capitol Hill. 

And remember, we can describe that “first-conference feeling” until we lose our voices, but it’s truly something you have to see for yourself. Register now to walk the halls of Congress, meet other climate advocates and create your own conference experience.