#NABJ18 starts Day 1 of the convention in Detroit

The National Association of Black Journalists began their annual convention at the Marriott Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan.

This will be my second time attending an NABJ convention and this is my first time in Detroit!

Workshops

The workshops were amazing as usual. Sometimes there are 3 to 4 workshops going on at the same time and I get sad that I won’t be able to attend all of them.

BUT! Thank God for hashtags and social media to keep me in the loop of things.

Speaking of social media, one workshop gave tips on how to utilize social media to grow your audience.

The workshop was called Social Media in the Newsroom. Unfortunately, I didn’t attend because I was in another workshop.

The hashtag for the workshop was #NABJSocialMedia and it gave journalists the opportunity to tweet tips on what they’ve learned during the workshop.

What an amazing idea to keep up-to-date with the workshop. The tips I’ve learned is the importance of GIFs when tweeting, using 2 to 3 hashtags for your tweet and to refrain from being #HashtagThirsty.

Making Your Opinion Count was a workshop which teaches journalists on how they can use their reporting skills for opinion writing as columnists.

I attended this workshop to know how columnists write. “Write what hasn’t been written before,” was the saying I took from the workshop.

Google Tools Workshop by Sam Stewart gave tools like Google Scholar, Google Earth Pro, and Reverse Image Search for journalists to use and I will definitely use in the future.

The next workshop I attended was The Black Press: Always Advocates for Change. This workshop was so inspiring as a Black journalist.

It solidified the importance of Black journalists and the Black press. The panel discussed how Black media outlets need to find ways to fund themselves and explained the importance of writing about any topic what you are passionate about.

Opening Ceremony

The honorary chairs of the convention were Senior Correspondent and Columnist for The Undefeated, Jemele Hill, and Columnist for the Detroit Free Press, Rochelle Riley, gave their introductions and welcomed the journalists to Detroit.

During the ceremony, they gave awards to:

• Student Chapter of the Year: NABJ's Student Chapter of North Carolina A&T University
• Chapter of the Year: NABJ's Chicago Chapter
• Student Journalist of the Year: Doni Holloway

I’m excited for Day 2 of #NABJ18! Stay tuned for more blogs about my experience each day during the convention and make sure to use #NABJ18 to stay updated on what’s going on!


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