Back in 2007, Capitolbeat president Laura Leslie and I agreed to head up our 2008 conference and bring it to Raleigh with the help of Tiffany Shackelford, who is now our executive director.
“What’s the worse that could happen,” we said. “North Carolina is never a swing state. Presidential candidates never come here. Heck, even our senate and gubernatorial elections are pretty tame.”
Well, the politics gods took this hubris and created pure comedy gold. Laura and I and the rest of our local team found ourselves planning a conference as we chased Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain along with their surrogates all over this great state of ours. And if you haven’t heard about the “Godless” ad in the Senate race, we’ll tell you all about it when you get here.
At any rate, despite the unexpected outbreak of news, we’re ready to lift the curtain on Capitolbeat 2008 Thursday.
The committee for Concerned Journalists will host a pre-session beginning at 1 p.m. on Thursday. Click here for more on that.
The conference proper starts Thursday evening with a reception at our old state capitol building and then a full day of panels on Friday and Saturday. Saturday evening, we give out our annual awards for excellence in statehouse reporting and will hear from legendary News & Observer reporter Pat Stith.
Click here for the updated conference program and yes, we’re still making a few last minute tweaks.
If you haven’t signed up for the conference but still want to come, please send me an e-mail and we’ll try to hook you up with last minute arrangements.
On behalf of Capitolbeat’s board, we look forward to seeing all of you in Raleigh.
Mark Binker, Greensboro News & Record
mbinker@gmail.com
2008 Conference Chairman
Filed under: Conference | Tagged: Capitolbeat 2008, conferene, Laura Leslie, Raleigh
RSS
