First impressions of our nation's capitol ... a day late

As this was my first visit to Washington D.C., I couldn't help but peer out of the window of the airplane when we began our descent into Reagan National. The brake lights of afternoon traffic pockmarked the soaked streets of our nation's capital...unfortunately we would encounter traffic of our own. We happened to board the Metro subway right as Washington's corporate bees left their metaphorical hive. Apparently masses of people crammed into tiny subway cars bring out the worst of people in this city. Regardless, this has been quite an educationally valuable trip (more on the visual spectacle later) as we attended our first sessions today.


At 9 a.m., I attended the "Whither Magazines" session with National Geographic magazine's Keith Bellows, who discussed the future of magazines. He essentially stated that reinvention must occur if magazines are to survive. Writers must become more well-rounded in terms of what they can do for the publication; they must be willing to write for the print and online mediums. They must be willing to produce narratives that engross the reader.

At the 10 a.m. "Intro to Underwriting" session with NPR's J.C. Patrick, we explored the basics of radio kits to present to potential advertising clients. Radio kits should be personal and user-friendly to the prospective and should sell a benefit -- not a feature -- to the prospective client.

At the 11 a.m. 'Breaking into Magazines" session, we learned that query letters really help gain the attention of magazines to your story, as many submissions lack a query letter and magazines have little time to sort through them all. The session was focused heavily on the query letter. We also learned that if we wanted to start submitting now, it's all right to state that we're still writing for our school's newspaper.

The 12 p.m. "College Press 101" was a basic outline of significant court cases involving student journalists with follow-up on how it affects us today. The SPLC's Adam Goldstein was very knowledgeable of his craft, as he deals with the bulk of calls from student journalists to the SPLC; he said that he deals with at least 1,000 calls per year, which surprised me a bit.

Perhaps the most energetic session of the day was hosted by Jason Levine. The 1 p.m. session by the self-proclaimed evangelist for Adobe software was filled with exhibitions of his "prowess". Oohs and aahs serenaded his glowing ponytailed and mutton-chopped aura after he made a seagull disappear from a video clip in the Adobe After Effects program. I was personally engrossed in the new software that enables users to make their videos suitable for broadcast on everything from cell phones to YouTube.

More on the sights and sounds of D.C. in a later post. My fingers hurt.

--Richelle Stephens

Rolling Suitcases unite!!!

For some reason, sitting in the airport Wednesday morning made me really nervous. Maybe it was because I was about to conquer (like many airplane trips before) my fear of heights and embrace the unknowingness of the sky. Maybe it was because I was reading "Into the Wild", a book about a free spirit embracing the road for two years, finally starving to death in Alaska. The only thing I did know was that I was early. My mom, being the wonderful person that she is, demanded dropping me off at the airport about 20 minutes till I had to be there.

After defeating the wannabe Airforce 1, also known as the Shreveport jet, I waited anxiously with Dr. Lee, Jim and Lauren to see if we won a seat on the 11:45 plane. Oh, the joyous life of a standby flyer. By some miracle of God, all three of us made it on the plane and into Washington in one piece. Since we have been here it has been an interesting ride. There are a lot of important people walking on the streets (and by important I mean they have a suitcase and are listening to an iPod). The Wall Street posers line the subways, and we knowingly took them down with our rolling suitcases.

Mary Manno

First impressions of D.C.

Arriving about an hour and a half before our colleauges -- which actually turned out to be about two hours after their flight was delayed -- Lauren, Mary and I got off the plane with some physiological needs to attend to. No consensus was met on what to eat, but we found a common table. It wasn't until several minutes had passed that I realized how close Reagan airport is to the action in D.C., and turning the page of a newspaper I caught my first glimpse of the Washington Monument.

I must admit that the first few minutes were rather intimidating. People were looking at us like we didn't belong, and I felt like they were right. Businessmen rushing to catch their commuter flights and finalizing deals over the phone was the norm. A few college kids in jeans drew a few not uninterested stares.

The subway system is efficient and pretty simple to understand. It reminded me a lot of the subway in London. A guy on our metro was drinking a Bud Light in the open, which opened a humurous dialogue between me and Chris as to the legality and/or indifference to that in this area.

One of the girls travelling with us wasn't familiar with the unwritten rule that you stand to the right when going up from the subway, or on any escalator really. Added to that was the fact she had a massive suitcase at her side. In any case, people rushing to the next place didn't care, and I felt bad when one man embarassed her and loudly demanded she step to the side immediately. I think the guy embarassed himself though.

There are a lot of really nice cars here, and I have the impression there's a good bit of money here. I saw an ATM slip left on the machine as I was withdrawing some cash and just happened to notice that the man before me still had over $30,000 in that particular checking account. The Lufthansa flight crews appear to overnight in this hotel on a regular basis, and I spoke some German with one guy yesterday afternoon for kicks. This city is so diverse, he didn't seem to be the least bit surprised.

Jim Mustian

We made it!

Although I was excited to arrive in DC, getting here was not a process that I was excited about.

Jim, Mary and I were originally expected to arrive in DC late Wednesday night, however we managed to finagle our way on the stand-by lists for two flights. We actually arrived earlier than the rest of the group and avoided a four-hour layover in Dallas.

Upon the reunion of the group, we boarded the Metro. Dr. Lee warned us that rush hour might cause chaos while riding, so we prepared ourselves for the massive crowd of commuters. I now know what salmon feel like in their migration up-stream.

We finally came to our stop on the Metro where we headed towards the hotel, walking the four longest blocks of my life.... In the rain. Toting suitcases and covered by umbrellas, I can only imagine the sight we were to the locals -- a horde of student journalists accompanied by the roar of rolling bags and obnoxious umbrellas. Look out, DC! NSU IS HERE!

-- Lauren Sciba

Arrival

After a delayed flight, catching the metro during rush hour, and walking 4 blocks in the rain, we finally arrived at our hotel in DC. I was so excited to get here! During the walk to the hotel we were able to get familiar with the area. There is so much to do and so little time.


It is so funny to be here and think of Natchitoches and how very different the two places are. Yesterday we actually saw people walking around the city in the rain; at home no one would leave their house, much less walk around with an umbrella. I can't wait to go exploring after my sessions.

Brittany Byrd

Base of Operations.

The Hilton Washington in Dupont Circle -- our home away from home this week.

The front-desk clerk told me that the staff were expecting more than 800 conference guests at the hotel and that by the time we arrived (around 6pm), they had already received 20+ noise complaints on Thursday alone. If that's the most trouble they have with this many college students in one place, then they should consider themselves lucky.

[Some of us may not recognize the hotel in this picture because the sky is blue, not gray, and the sun is shining.]

Entourage.

I am proud, relieved and amazed that the NSU student media posse has arrived at the conference intact and in good spirits. Getting here was truly an accomplishment -- and an adventure.

We met before dawn in a fog-filled parking lot on campus before heading off in a caravan of carpools to the Shreveport airport. Just a few hours earlier, I had run into Jim after midnight at Wal-Mart, and I had seen many of the conference-goers at Kyser even later than that, as they worked most of the night putting the paper to bed. At 4 a.m., when Kera walked back into the newsroom to pick up her phone and I was still in my office trying to finish up paperwork, I really wondered if some of us (meaning me) would have to go to DC with just the clothes on our backs.

Getting to Shreveport was only the first leg of a long day of travel. Lauren, Jim and Mary had to fly standby all day because the flights they were booked on were much later than the rest of the group, and we were determined to arrive en masse. Luck was on our side, and at the last minute, our three standby passengers snagged the last three seats on our flight to Dallas.

Our good fortune seemed to shine on in Dallas, where Jim, Lauren and Mary immediately hustled over to a flight already boarding and once again were able to grab the last few seats off of the standby list for a packed flight, this time to DC. While they were winging their way east, the rest of us boarded another flight and learned that our pilot was running late to the airport. By the time we finally left, I had read the Entertainment Weekly I bought in DFW from cover to cover and annoyed my seatmates with a growing pile of discarded newspapers.

Our group reunited upon landing at Reagan, and we set off to the Metro for our first foray into DC. I now know what it's like to have an entourage. I was the leader of a wheelie-pulling Gen Y gang, thundering through the turnstiles and taking up excessive extra space on the Metro system at rush hour. After emerging at Dupont Circle, we headed on foot for the Hilton Washington, allegedly a few short blocks away. My entourage and I hiked (trudged) several long blocks uphill, through a steady drizzle, flirting with scolosis and wrist sprains from schlepping bags. When the blue Hilton "H" finally came into view, I asked Andi if it was a mirage. She confirmed that it was real; we had indeed arrived!

The lobby of the hotel was chaos, with every seat and square foot occupied by gaggles of college kids in various states of hanging out or checking in. As I made my people hang out while I checked us in, I took stock of the scene. Sure, we were a soggy, bedraggled bunch without the requisite matching luggage and garment bags in school colors -- but I was incredibly proud to have brought every single one of these student media leaders to the ACP/CMA conference. Standing there, I felt the collective energy of hundreds of ambitious, earnest and enthusiast journalism students. Watching everyone, I felt excited about the contribution that NSU makes every year in adding to this congregation. Looking around, I felt old.

Dr. Lee