By Darius Daughtry
For NABJ’s 50th convention, a historic number of attendees are flocking to Atlanta for the first time in 21 years.
NABJ Interim Executive Director Nate Chambers said in a board of directors meeting on Tuesday that registration stood at 3,907 attendees. Though the final number won’t be known until Saturday, that total would be the third highest in NABJ history and 1,000 more than last year’s attendance in Cleveland.
Attendees attributed their excitement for this year’s convention to Atlanta’s reputation as a beacon of Black culture.
“Atlanta is a place where you can find pretty much everyone in every position in every career field that is Black and successful,” said Asar John, who is attending his first convention since 2023. “To have that as a reflection at the NABJ conference is amazing and to have that concentration of Black professional journalists at NABJ, in the Black Mecca that is Atlanta, is amazing, and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Daishen Smith, who is attending his fourth convention, has visited Atlanta multiple times, but is still excited to have new experiences.
“I try and check out different things every time. There’s a lot of history here,” Smith said. “Everywhere you look, there’s some sort of Black imprint around here.”
This year’s convention also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists, NABJ’s second oldest chapter. In Tuesday’s board meeting, AABJ President Condace Pressley spoke about Atlanta’s significance.
“This is a city where Black history, Black excellence, Black entrepreneurship, Black culture and Black journalism are woven into the fabric of who we are,” Pressley said.
AABJ will host multiple special events throughout the week, such as their Opening Reception at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and two bus tours – all of which have sold out.
The convention begins a day after Strategic Committee Chair Dr. Sheila Brooks mentioned the idea of shortening the convention in the board meeting as a means of mitigating NABJ’s “financial burden.”
Brooks said the committee looked at organizations similar to NABJ and noticed that “nobody has a five-day convention.”
“We just believe that you can have good programming in three days, and that does not mean that there’s not other programming behind it,” Brooks said in the meeting.
Smith said he didn’t like the idea, citing his truncated convention experience in 2024 due to prior commitments.
“I just felt like I was cramming so much into that day and a half, two days, that, obviously, I missed some stuff,” Smith said. “I didn’t get to everything I wanted to, so if you shortened it, that’s probably going to be the same thing.”
John said that he wouldn’t have a problem with a shorter convention as long as the lost programming is replaced elsewhere.
“What else are you doing to replace that time loss? If there’s no plan to replace that time that’s lost, then how will that affect the chances of people getting a job or being able to network with other professionals?” John said. “We have to think about that, especially in a time where the job market is not great.”
Be the first to comment