That's what this week's column concludes after taking a look at the Blogs4Life event being held today in association with the 34th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.

After my deadline, I heard back from conference organizer Joe Carter of the Family Research Council and keynote speaker Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review Online senior editor and author of "The Party of Death."

Carter called Blogs4Life "a way to expand the base" by inviting non-bloggers and giving them the tools to start their own sites. The conference will end up drawing about 50 bloggers as well, he said via phone.

It's also a way to help connect anti-abortion folks across the country to the March for Life even if they can't attend.

"The march is in Washington, D.C., on a Monday but you can participate by proxy through your favorite blogger," he said.

For an activist blog conference, Carter added, it's great to "latch onto an event that people are already going to."

The connection also gives the conference extra clout. "I couldn't get Sen. Brownback to speak at my blog conference if it's just a blog conference," Carter said.

And while the march has a strong anti-abortion focus, the blog conference has the latitude to focus on an expanded agenda including cloning and the treatment of embryos, he said.

National Review Online's Ponnuru checked in via e-mail over the weekend to say this:

"It was a smart move for the Family Research Council to host this blog conference. People speak of the blogosphere as a community, but it is hard to have a sense of community if you don't occasionally meet in person. And some bloggers, I suspect, could use the reassurance that they're not alone. So I think this is a model that will spread as other activist groups tie blogging conferences to protests and rallies."

Agreed.

Two additional notes: The blog conference is streaming live online today at the Family Research Council site.

And Ponnuru mentioned he'll be speaking at Gonzaga University Jan. 30.

Links to mentioned sites:

Blogs4Life
Jill Stanek's Pro-Life Pulse
Yearly Kos
Flopping Aces

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