Bob Delaney At Large: 9/22/24

28 September 2024

2024 NFPW Conference (Part 1)

Last Thursday night after work (20 June), I headed to the St. Louis Artists' Guild for the Welcome Reception of this year's National Federation of Press Women (NFPW) Conference. Missouri Professional Communicators (MPC), an affiliate of NFPW, served as the Conference's host. I joined with other MPC members ijmllnn

welcoming registrants to this event, which had a buffet dinner and wine tasting. Afterward, I helped my colleagues in cleaning up and taking some surplus food and drink home.

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The Conference got well underway the next morning at the Hilton St. Louis Frontenac. The day started with a welcome breakfast. First time Conference attendees (including myself) stood up and introduced themselves. We each received a small gift (in my case, a pair of Rome socks). All attendees received a sheet of paper to seek fellow attendees who answered some items on that sheet, such as a current MFPW officer, someone who is retired from work, and a past Communicator of Achievement. The exercise was to help us get to know other attendees well. I completed my sheet the next morning and turned it in for entry in a raffle prize drawing the next day.

Theis was followed by the Keynote Session: "History in the Headlines." Speakers at this session were Lynne Jackson, great-great granddaughter of Dred and Harriet Scott and president and founder of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation and Dr. Jody Sowell, president of the Missouri Historical Society and a former assistant professor of journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. Jackson talked of how she helped preserve the memory of her famous ancestors. Sowell presented a talk about St. Louis historical items not generally well known to most people. Both were very interesting speakers.

Before the next program, I went into the room where the Silent Auction took place. I surveyed the items up for bid and started placing bids on items that particularly interested me. Proceeds from this auction will go to the NFPW Education Fund. Already, I was really liking the Conference and the people there.

The lunch program was "AI: Partner or Pestilence?" This panel discussion on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it affects the news business had three speakers. Mary Ann L. Wymore, partner at UB Greensfelder law firm, adjunct professor of media law at Saint Louis University, and former journalism professor at the University of California-Los Angels. Also participating were Aisha Sultan, family and social change columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and John Stamm, CEO and founder of Hello Citizen, a St. Louis-based firm that enables uses to harness AI in following local government. This was quite a thought-provoking discussion.

I then attended two workshops in the afternoon. First, freelance photographer Rosalind Guy presented "Effective Storytelling through Photography," She talked about how she got into photography 45 years ago and her love of covering positive items in the community.

Then, I took in Anne Shaw Heinrich's presentation "Thriving in Nonprofit PR, Professionally and Personally." She spoke on her long experience working for both organizations and freelance along with balancing work with her family life. It was a very nice talk and I chatted with Heinrich afterward. She said she would put me in touch with an educational public relations group in Metro St. Louis to help me in my job search.

The late afternoon saw me going through Author's Alley, where several attendees had their books for sale. I bought two books during this time: "Delivering Greatness: How I Found Success...and You Can, Too! by Tom V. Quinn from Connecticut, a personal motivational work; and "Touch," a young adult novel by MPC member Eileen P. Duggan. Both authors autographed their works for me.

I went to the hotel bar for a drink and conversation with MPC's co-presidents, Janice Denham and Deborah Reinhardt, who were major driving forces behind staging this Conference. Then, we headed back to the meeting area for the Communicator of Achievement Banquet. This included a nice dinner and introduction of the five finalists for this lifetime achievement award. The winner was then announced.