Secretaries of state – including Colorado’s Wayne Williams – and communication staffers from 20 different SOS offices are in New Orleans for a two-day “connect & collaborate” conference.

Among the presenters at the event: Twitter and Facebook officials who provided invaluable tips for how secretaries of state can get out their message on voter registration and other issues – and have a little fun.

The workshop was put on by the National Association of Secretaries of State and hosted by Louisiana SOS Tom Schedler and his staff. NASS’ Kay Stimson led the workshop “Negative Publicity & Hostile Reporters.” I chuckled when I read the title. We’ve had some of the first, very little of the latter.

When I moderated the panel on business communications, I said the No. 1 question I get asked is for a list of the state’s pot shops now that marijuana is legal. (That’s not our department, I have to explain.)

Besides Williams and Schedler other secretaries of state who attended were: John Merrill of Alabama, Elaine Marshall of North Carolina, Barbara Cegavske of Nevada, Pedro Cortes of Philadelphia, Mark Hammond of South Carolina, Tre Hargett of Tennessee and Natalie Tennant of West Virginia.

There was a groan from Marshall when Sean Evins of Twitter posted some of his favorite tweets, including a shot of Betty White talking about the Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton. The Panthers lost the Super Bowl in February to the Denver Broncos – and Marshall lost a bet to Williams. Here’s that Tweet:

And here’s a tweet from Secretary Williams about the conference:

To read more posts by Lynn Bartels, visit her official blog at the Colorado Secretary of State website.