Live! from the AWSM Convention

Greetings from Dallas! I don't know if it's true what they say about everything being bigger here, but it's all been quite a bit faster!



I hope many of the women of SportsJournalists.com are here. I may met some of y'all already and don't even know it. As for the rest of y'all -- and I'm glaring in your direction, IJAG and Sxy, since I've actually seen you in person! -- maybe you can join us next year in Miami!

 

What's with the car?

 

NASCAR ride-along! Four laps at about 160 mph. Way cool.

Hopefully some other SportsJournalists.commers won't be too shy to share their own thoughts as the Convention goes on. But right now, the hospitality suite awaits! ;D

 

Is it like I imagine? An Oprah-like figure on stage yelling, "You get a job! And you get a job! And you get a job!" Ah I kid...

 

I'm waiting for the AFWG Convention.

 

I have long been an admirer of this organization and think it has done a lot to help advance the careers of female sportswriters. It's amazing how many smart, talented women there are in journalism. I just wish more females were out there to employ, at all circulation sizes. The small shops could use female voices just as much as the larger shops. And there definitely should be more women in management. Maybe this group will help accomplish that goal.

 

That's a really good point Brett.

 

We're heading to the Sixth Floor Museum, aka the Texas Schoolbook Depository, this morning. As a student of Kennedy assassination conspiracy, I can't wait!

By the way, Dave Kindred gave a lovely talk yesterday. I was hoping he'd post some insights himself, but the internet access isn't free at this hotel. Perhaps once he arrives home...

 

In that little talk referenced by PaperDoll, I told the crowd that the last time I was the only boy in the room was in high school typing class a hundred years ago ... causing the sweetheart Juliet Macur to ask, "And you were there only to learn to type?"....

Well, sorta ... and I was sorta in Dallas to do my little talk about why I love what we do ... I was really there because I've been an AWSM member 15 years, I believe AWSM is important to our business, and I wanted to say out loud what I've believed for a long time: that three of the best sportswriters I've ever known are women: Betty Cuniberti, Jane Leavy, and Joan Ryan. More important, I wanted to say I admire and respect them so much because they write complex ideas simply while getting to the heart of the issue and their subjects.

Besides, what's bad about going to dinner with 100 of the best looking sportswriters in America, all in little black dresses? (Sportswriter spouse Dave Barry and I were an under-dressed matched pair in the standard male banquet uniform of blazer, tie, khakis, loafers)....

It was worth the trip to be there when the four founders of AWSM took to the banquet microphone to explain how, 20 years ago, they came to create the association that will be their legacy to the business. Their names are Christine Brennan, Michelle Himmelberg, Kristin Huckshorn, and Tracy Dodds. To quote the giddy Huckshorn, it happened this way: "We got drunk!" Good to learn that the women operate in the same way men do.

And what a hotel, the Hilton Anatole .... gorgeous, elegant, filled with sculpture (elephants! Will Rogers on a horse!), Asian art (statues of Buddha and/or Whitlock, I couldn't tell which)....AWSM does it up right....

 

I know Dave only peripherally.
But, one can tell by a message off the top of his head, why he is class.
Nice to have you around here.

 

Awwwww... Thanks! :-*

We weren't <i>all</i> wearing black, and I have the photos to prove it. (I wouldn't have been, but I chose the dress to minimize visible tan lines!)

We just got back from the Sixth Floor Museum where I was delighted to learn that Christine Brennan is an even bigger Kennedy conspiracy theorist than I am!

:

The AWSM Convention is a great event put on by an even better organization. Anyone (female <i>or</i> male) who wants more info, PM me. Come on, lurking sports editors... You know you want to support the women on your staff!


P.S. A Kindred quote from the AWSM session will likely be appearing in my .sig shortly... if it's few enough characters!