My First But Definitely Not Last NABJ Convention Recap

I was quite official #Nabj12

So I finally did it, I attended a National Association of Black Journalist Convention! I say finally because this is something that I should have done a long time ago. So this is how it all went down:

Wednesday 6/20 12am-

We pulled up to the Civic Center Marta station after riding around for a day trying to find it…. we were about to board the infamous Megabus. Yes…. I took the bus  to good ol’ New Orleans. This seemed like a great idea, it was affordable ($30 round trip) and I knew that a lot of other people heading to the convention would also be on my bus, so why not?

So I walk up to the bus and I see a less fortunate version of Derek J loading the luggage. I see him

Jemele Hill and I! #Nabj12

weighing luggage and sending some people home to unpack and come back with lighter bags… my stomach dropped because I mean really… who has time to unpack and re-pack? He picked up my bag and I passed the test, I then tried to hand him my other bag and he looked at me like I was the dumbest person alive… so I turned around and just got on the bus.

The bus was very cold but comfortable at the end of the day. The bus driver on the other hand was out of control. His name was Phenomenal and he had been having a very bad day. He got on the bus and was extremely rude, I felt verbally abused. Phenomenal said things like: “Don’t piss on my floor” and  “Yall gon learn today” Phenomenal had a full set of nails, eyeliner, and a horrible attitude. Phenomenal pulled over on the side of highway 85 and cussed my friend Brittany Geneva out for taking a picture and using the flash button. Phenomenal was everything BUT Phenomenal. Smh

Wednesday 6/20 7am

We have been friends since the 6th grade. Jerry Askin and I #Nabj12

We arrived in New Orleans safe, sound and an hour early because our bus driver was going well above and beyond the speed limit. Today is the first day of convention so we head to the hotel to freshen up and get ready for our respective sessions. Sike…. the hotel says nope… you all cannot check in. Okay so we are thinking maybe in an hour or so they will let us in our room… nope… their system shut down. So basically no one could check in until it was up which left us wondering around looking bus-rider-like for about 4 hours. Lucky us, my roomies and I were allowed to freshen up and change in the AABJ presidents room (Tenisha) and head to our 1pm sessions.

I attended the “Branding U: Student Edition” session but had to leave early to finally check into my room. The session seemed to be pretty interesting at the beginning, it discussed the basics of social media, good for students.

Our room was cute… a good size for four girls to say the least.

Wednesday 6pm

The roommates and I went down to the welcome reception with VP Joe Biden. He gave his political speech, it was great and he made some valid points.

Nicole Lyons, First African American Female Race car driver, and myself!

That night we went to Bourbon Street of course, #Nabj12 had officially begun!

The rest of my trip in bullets:

Thursday 6/21

• I am an aspiring sports journalist so naturally I attended the Sports Task Mentor Breakfast. I had a great time and met some great people. I sat at the table with two  journalist wanting to write about sports, like myself, who had drive dripping from their pores (deep right). I also sat with a Marketing Manager from Espn who was awesome enough to introduce me to Jemele Hill who happened to be standing behind me in the breakfast buffet line. She was so cool and we talked after the program which was great by the way. Stan Verrett, Michael Smith and Keith Reed along with Jemele Hill said a lot of inspirational things on the panel. Good stuff.
• I went to another Branding Session, this one featured Bomani Jones. Bomani is kind of hilarious in a… you don’t know if he’s being mean, funny, or just real type of way. More or less he said some real things during the entire convention.
• I then attended a program about jobs behind the lens of sports moderated by Rashan Ali. Very informative. Also I must add that meeting Rashan Ali was pretty cool considering that I have listened to her on the radio in Atlanta forever.
• Disney parks had an event that night and guess who saaaaannggg, Ruben Studdard; and he still sounds amazing. Also Cupid, the guy from the Cupid Shuffle song showed up and actually sand the song while we did the dance that goes along with it…. that was… different.
• The most amazing thing happened Thursday night… The Miami Heat won championship #2 and Lebron James won his first ring. It was a beautiful thing….. I absolutely love the game.

Brittany Geneva and myself posing at the reception featuring VP Joe Biden

Friday 6/22

• This was my career fair day, I visited numerous booths and talked to so many people. I got some new ideas and was truly inspired. Visiting the ESPN section and learning more about the new Aspire channel had to be the two highlights of my time at the fair. Oh and I met a black female NASCAR driver…. super cool!
• I then attended a program discussing Title IX and its 40th anniversary. Awesome stuff.
• Later that evening I attended an Espn Reception at the W which was pretty cool. I met Otto Strong among others who said some pretty great things. #S/o to the recruiter that felt like I deserved that invite, you are much appreciated!
• The Sports Pioneer Awards Ceremony was next on my list of things to attend and I must say that it was a pretty beautiful thing. A lot of… pioneers were honored, one being the coach of the Brooklyn Nets, Avery Johnson. Very Cool.
• And of course we attended the Sports Task Scholarship Jam which was #boss to say the least. It was held at The House of Blues and the DJ went in the whole night. Fun and almost weird thing about this party was seeing people that you were networking with earlier at the party getting super loose… I loved it.

We met Anthony Anderson! #Nabj12

Saturday 6/23

• Sigh…. This was my last day at #Nabj12
• One of the best panels that attended was “New Media, Old Problems”. The issue of lack of black writers on popular sports sites was discussed. Craziest thing I heard from someone on the panel was “Black people don’t read”, and yes a black man said this. He was sitting in a room full of educated journalist and he felt that it was okay to throw that horrible generalization out there. He then followed up that statement by saying, ” I don’t want to talk about the lack of drive that young black journalist have”. Okay sir….. I’m glad that I’m not easily discouraged… seriously. This in turn sparked a very interesting debate about the hustle and when working for free just doesn’t cut it after a certain amount of time, #RealStuff
• For the rest of the day I checked out the film “Beast of a Southern Wild”, attended the Sports Task Force Meeting and got a chance to talk to Rob Parker about black women covering Baseball, and I went to the Orlando Nabj13 kickoff party.

Now before we left the good city of New Orleans we had to visit Bourbon Street one more time. Unfortunately it was complete chaos Saturday night and no I did not expect it. We ran into three fights, one so horrific I almost shed a tear. We witnessed Police on horses chasing the wrong person and treating him like a convict while the actual suspect got away and we had to listen to a man yell at everyone in Arbys as we waited on our last meal in New Orleans… What a night.

WHEW…. That was a lot but this was my first conference so I want to remember every piece if it…. honestly I left a lot out.

Adios New Orleans…. Orlando next year! #Nabj13

#NABJ12 was a life changing experience, I learned a lot, made a lot of connections, met some great people, made some new friends and I got that extra push that I needed to truly pursue this as a career. A journalist, of course but Sports… that’s what I want to write and talk about. Meeting so many people doing what I want to do or aspiring just like me was just wonderful.

Orlando 2013….. I’m there deep in my career ready to learn even more 🙂