A total of 400 people descended on the Pennsylvania Convention Center and the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown two weeks ago for the 2008 AAN Convention. The three-day event featured the usual mix of presentations and panels, food and booze, and business talk and gossip between alt-weekly staffers and industry types from across North America. AAN committees and staff mostly took care of the first item, while host paper Philadelphia City Paper had the second one covered, and attendees proved themselves more than capable of handling the third on their own.
All of the members who have announced their candidacies are thus far running unopposed. However, AAN bylaws do not require individuals to declare their intention to run in advance. Any regular members who are interested in seeking a seat on the board can be nominated from the floor at the annual meeting, which will be held on Saturday, June 7, during the association's annual meeting in Philadelphia. Read here to find out who has announced they are running, why they want to serve on the board, and what they view as the important issues facing AAN and its members.
For the second year in a row, AAN papers can qualify for up to two free registrations to the annual confab, which will be held June 15-17 in Little Rock, Ark. In addition to former President Bill Clinton, Arkansas natives Wesley Clark and Susan McDougal have already been confirmed as speakers. And for the first time ever, AAN members will be able to register for the convention over the Internet.
The former President has agreed to be the featured speaker at this year's convention in Little Rock, Ark., which will be held June 15-17. The three-day convention will also feature an opening night reception at the Clinton Presidential Library.
With this year's convention in San Diego just over, the Arkansas Times is itching to bring the convention to Little Rock next summer. Why? "Rampant boosterism," says Alan Leveritt, the paper's publisher. "We love Little Rock, and we wanted to introduce our friends at AAN to her."
Santa Fe Reporter's editor files the first post-convention blogpost after returning from San Diego. Well, we think it's the first. If anyone else has written about the convention in their paper or on their blog let us know and we'll find a way to post it.
"Public Figures/Private Lives," a panel discussion examining the sticky issues raised when journalists cover the private peccadilloes of public figures, has been added to the program on Friday, June 17, at 10 a.m. Westword editor Patricia Calhoun will moderate, and Pulitzer Prize winner Nigel Jaquiss and his editor at Willamette Week, Mark Zusman, will serve as panelists. The panel previously scheduled in that time slot -- "Who Does What, When? Sequencing the Editorial and Production Process" -- will now be structured as an open discussion moderated by Santa Fe Reporter editor Julia Goldberg, and will be held an hour earlier at 9 a.m. Both programs are scheduled concurrently with the tour of Tijuana's underbelly, for which buses will depart at 8 a.m. and return after the AltWeekly Awards Luncheon on Friday afternoon.
Blood. Frogs. Vermin. Hail. Locusts. Slaying of your first editor. Whatever. If you publish a paper long enough, sooner or later you will be hit with a disaster. With eleven papers to worry about, the folks at New Times are always thinking about these things, and they have agreed to share their disaster-recovery plans with business-stream attendees on Saturday, June 18 at 4:45 pm.
Friday, April 22, is the final day to take advantage of early-registration bargain rates for this year's annual convention. Members and non-members who register before the close-of-business tomorrow will save $50 per attendee. For details, visit our San Diego Convention Web site and download a registration form.
