Upcoming Conference to be Held Jan. 29-30 in San Francisco.

The braintrust behind AAN West huddled, talked and decided at a meeting held in San Francisco Aug. 27.

The planning committee — comprised of AAN Director of Operations and Special Projects Debra Silvestrin and representatives from five West Coast newsweeklies — is responsible for organizing the 1999 conference which will be held at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway in San Francisco Jan. 29-30. The meeting will be hosted by the 35-year-old Marin-based alternative, the Pacific Sun.

“At the meeting,” says Pacific Sun Publisher Steve McNamara, “we reaffirmed that these regional conferences are foremost for staff members — an opportunity to get together, share information and become more adept at what they do.”

The conference will feature two days of seminars, meetings, speakers and discussion roundtables covering five streams: business, classifieds, design and production, editorial and display advertising.

Speakers haven’t been selected yet, but McNamara says people should be assured that the conference will be foremost “a nuts and bolts occasion with a social element.”

Registration forms for the two-day event will be mailed in November.