By CONNING CHU
The UNITY News

CNN will air a commercial-free screening of the “Black in America” series, hosted by Soledad O’Brien, tonight at the UNITY ’08 Convention in place of the canceled presidential candidates’ forum, a CNN spokeswoman said.

Danette Johnson said after the presidential candidates forum fell through, CNN worked with convention organizers to plan an event for the vacated time slot and follow through on the network’s commitment.

“We just wanted to make good on it and fill a hole,” she said.

The widely-publicized forum was canceled after U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. U.S. Barack Obama, D-Ill., presumptive presidential nominees for their respective parties, did not confirm their attendance. Both senators said they had scheduling conflicts, explained UNITY Executive Director Onica Makwakwa.

Instead, Obama will give a Sunday morning speech broadcast by CNN at the UNITY convention, following his return from the Middle East.

McCain is scheduled to be at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio today.

CNN and parent company Time Warner were to sponsor and broadcast the forum.

Johnson said the network believed that the screening was a good fit to replace the political forum as it would give attendees who would otherwise miss the televised program an opportunity to view it with their peers. She said it was important to air “Black in America” in a setting where diversity was topical.

“It was ironic and coincidental,” said Johnson. “It just kind of worked.”

The screening was not confirmed until Wednesday morning, because it was still uncertain if series host O’Brien, among others, would be able to attend.

Johnson said the screening will include an introduction and question-and-answer segment with O’Brien and Angela Burt-Murray, editor in chief of Essence magazine.

The screening is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. in McCormick West room 196.

Johnson expects 300 to 400 attendees. Shuttle service has been extended until 8:30 p.m. to take viewers back to their hotels.

Shuttle Information
Complimentary shuttle service is provided between McCormick Place West and the hotels listed below. Shuttle departs convention center on the hour and half-hour.

Hotel Route Boarding Location

Chicago City Centre 2 Side Entrance on Fairbanks

Hyatt Regency Chicago 1 Curbside on Wacker Drive

Inn of Chicago 2 Curbside on St. Clair

Sheraton Chicago 2 Curbside on Columbus Drive

Swissotel 1 Walk to Hyatt Regency Chicago

Hyatt McCormick Place 3 Curbside on MLK

Wednesday, 7/23

4:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Every 10-15 minutes

Field Museum

7:00 p.m. - 7:30p.m. *From McCormick Place and Field Museum

7:00 p.m. -10 p.m. *Between hotels and Field Museum

Thursday, 7/24

6:30 a.m. - 7:30 a.m. Every 30 minutes

7:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Every 10 - 15 minutes

9:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. Every 30 minutes

12:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Every 20 minutes

7:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. Every 10-15 minutes

Friday, 7/25

6:30 a.m. - 7:30 a.m. Every 30 minutes

7:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Every 10-15 minutes

9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Every 30 minutes

12:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Every 20 minutes

4:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Every 10-15 minutes

Saturday, 7/27
6:30 a.m. - 7:30 a.m. Every 30 minutes

7:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Every 10-15 minutes

9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Every 30 minutes

12:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Every 20 minutes

4:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Every 10-15 minutes

Sunday, 7/27
8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Every 20 minutes

Inter-Hotel Shuttle

Thursday, 7/24
5:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.

Friday, 7/25
5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, 7/26
5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

For shuttle information and special assistance: (312)791-7001
Please call at least 30 minutes prior to pick-up.

Registration at the UNITY 08 convention.

By Venus Lee
The UNITY News Staff

As newsrooms across the nation struggle to survive through a sluggish economy, thousands of media professionals will blow into the Windy City this week for the largest gathering of journalists in U.S. history.

Officials estimate approximately 10,000 attendees will converge in Chicago for UNITY: A New Journalism for a Changing World - five days of events, speakers, workshops and discussions that are relevant to current issues in the media industry. Planning a convention this big was no easy task. It required cooperation, dedication and hard work from an overarching organization and numerous volunteers for nearly four years.

The backbone of planning the convention was UNITY: Journalists of Color, a strategic alliance of four national journalism organizations: Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association.

Barbara Ciara, NABJ president and UNITY board member, said she couldn’t come up with an adjective that effectively describes what it’s like to pull all these forces together and make it smooth.

“Securing the speakers, finding the moderators, juggling the sea of recruiters and pulling together the alliance partners to have them agree is a mammoth process,” she said.

For months, representatives from the four organizations debated the best location for the convention. They considered several major cities including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Boston and Washington, D.C.

UNITY ’08 Convention Chair Bryan Monroe said each of the cities were strong candidates, but board members were ultimately impressed by Chicago’s offerings along the Magnificent Mile, a downtown restaurant and nightlife district along Michigan Avenue diverse communities, and a friendly, welcoming urban feel.

A committee of more than 100 staff members and volunteers handled production, promotion, programming and logistics.

“A lot of them have day jobs as working journalists at major news stations,” said Monroe, a vice president and editorial director for Ebony and Jet magazines in Chicago. “The fact that folks are squeezing this in between their day jobs is all the more a tribute to their character and dedication to this profession.”

Monroe and his committee filled the schedule of the conference distributing invitations to distinguished speakers and professionals. They whittled down a pool of 500 workshop proposals to approximately 100 of the most relevant and non-overlapping workshops. They also organized various discussion panels, the presidential candidates’ forum and a media showcase and career expo of more than 400 recruiters and exhibitors.

Hosting a convention of this magnitude is no cheap feat. Monroe estimates the price tag totaled more than $4 million.

“What we have to do is put on a terrific convention, but we have to keep in mind the cost,” said Ciara, managing editor at WTKR and a columnist for Mix Magazine. “We do this by being conservative in our approach and relying on sponsorships, fundraising and the alliances.”

To offset expenses, UNITY Executive Director Onica Makwakwa and her committee sought sponsorships, spending hours on the phone persuading companies to sponsor events, receptions and guest panels. Hotels, airlines and rental companies agreed to offer special rates and discounts to attendees.

While the UNITY organization handled the convention’s logistics, the individual journalism associations worked to generate the content and shouldered a large portion of the advertising burden.

In addition to the workshops, the associations organized events such as a speech by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, a fiesta, an evening of karaoke, a film festival and a 5K walk/run.

Ultimately, the associations provided the large number of attendees by promoting the convention on their Web sites, in e-mails and at local chapter gatherings. For example, NAHJ recruited attendees at a “Pre-UNITY Registration Party” earlier this year in Chicago. Makwakwa and UNITY President Karen Lincoln Michel were among the 50 attendees.

“Such events work because they allow journalists on the local level to share what they’ve gotten out of UNITY in the past and what they look forward to getting from UNITY this July in Chicago,” Michel wrote in a recent UNITY column. “It is important simply to connect with each other and build excitement on a regional level.”

Members also contributed to the advertising endeavor. Joe Grimm, a UNITY convention veteran and member of all four participating journalism associations, started a group on the social networking Web site Facebook last year for people attending the convention. The group grew to more than 700 members, who used the forum to network and advertise the event to others.

“It’s a good way to attract people, remind people and encourage people to be there,” said Grimm, a recruiter for Gannett and the Detroit Free Press. “I hope they think, ‘If all those people are going to be there, I definitely want to be there.’”

By Dioni L. Wise
The UNITY News Online

It’s official. Presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama will speak to the UNITY membership on Sunday – the last day of the convention.

“It’s better that he comes Sunday than not at all,” said Derrick Henry, UNITY BToard of Directors member.

Obama’s Republican counterpart Sen. John McCain has yet to accept or decline his invitation to attend the convention.

According to a UNITY news release, Obama will speak at the Presidential Candidates Forum on Sunday for about an hour.

UNITY coordinators plan to have Obama speak by 11 a.m., according to UNITY Executive Director Onica Makwakwa.

Coordinators received confirmation for Obama last week, but didn’t release the information then due to security concerns, Makwakwa said.

She said CNN still plans to broadcast the event.

Planners initially invited Obama and McCain each to speak one hour at the forum on Thursday, in which journalists from the four alliances would moderate the forum.

McCain is committed to speak at the LIVESTRONG Presidential Town Hall on Cancer at The Ohio State University in Columbus on Thursday. Obama is scheduled to speak with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday.

“(UNITY) is his first stop after his historic trip,” Henry said, of Obama’s European tour. “He might say something new. Wouldn’t it be great to hear him saying it here?”

Henry, senior producer for New York Times Digital, said scheduling conflicts with presidential nominees also occurred in the 2004 UNITY Convention in Washington, D.C.

That year Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry ran against the incumbent and eventual winner, President George W. Bush. Both men made it to the convention.

UNITY invited the two presumptive presidential nominees and former candidate Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton shortly after the Iowa primary in January.

According to the latest convention schedule posted on www.2008unity.org, the Media Diversity Roundtable from 9 a.m. to noon is the only other event slated for Sunday.

“Yes, we are concerned that it’s a different schedule than what we had intended initially,” Makwakwa said. “But, this whole decision was really one that we had to look at all of the options that we had. And the option was no candidates at all or one candidate available for Sunday.”

By Dioni L. Wise
UNITY News Online

*Update: UNITY has issued a press release announcing that Sen. Obama will appear at the convention on Sunday, July 24, after his return from a trip abroad. No word yet about Sen. McCain.*

If the UNITY workshops were supposed to be the appetizers and media receptions were supposed to be dessert, the presidential forum was touted as the main course. But for right now, it looks like convention-goers will have to leave the table hungry for more.

Maynard Institute’s Richard Prince reports that Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain are scheduled at other events on Thursday, July 24, the same day as the presidential candidate forum.

Senator John McCain will speak at LIVESTRONG Presidential Town Hall on Cancer at The Ohio State University in Columbus. Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France champion, will moderate the forum.

On the other side of the world, Obama will be well into his much-publicized European tour. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is slated to visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

A UNITY press release said the presidential forum would be broadcast live by CNN from 8-10 p.m. ET. The statement reads: “Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) are each expected to take part in separate 60-minute conversations with representatives of the UNITY alliance partners to discuss their candidacy, current issues and concerns pertinent to communities of color.”

In Richard Prince’s Journal-isms, UNITY Executive Director Onica Makwakwa said: “We’re still working on it. We’re still working on both campaigns. We know there are some changes with the schedules for both of them. We should be able to make an announcement in a few days of what adjustments, if any, we will make.”

The first three UNITY gatherings occurred every five years, in 1994, 1999 and 2004. In the fall of 2003, the alliance’s Board of Directors decided to have the convention every four years to coincide with the presidential elections. In 2004, President George W. Bush and his democratic opponent John Kerry spoke at the event in Washington, D.C.