Conferences will stay conferencing in 2024; don't let Trump’s appearance at the NABJ Convention keep you from your next one

Whether speaking, attending on behalf of your company, or looking for a new job, navigating any conference takes a mental, physical, and emotional toll on your entire being. “Being on” is a whole exercise in endurance for anyone, even your genuinely seasoned sis.?

At the I-need-to-see-people-who-look-like-me-so-I-don’t-lose-it type conferences like Afrotech, CelebrASIAN, Techqueria, or the NABJ (National Association of Black Journalists) Convention, where you can be around your people and share a safe, familiar, and lemme-take-a-deep-breath-to-relax, its always a disappointment when something happens like that from last week’s NABJ convention.?

As is often the case at affinity conferences, many attendees pay their way, investing their own money and resources to exist freely with people who look like them to network, build community, find inspiration, mentorship, or a new job in a space that is intended to be inclusive, safe, and celebratory in its gathering. But unfortunately, what happened on day one of the NABJ Convention is normal.?

ICYMI, three Black senior, experienced, and high-profile Black women journalists were subjected to incredibly hateful speech as they represented what suddenly appeared to be an association that was unobjectionably accommodating of racist rhetoric from a political candidate who lacks consideration of any issues pertinent to most Americans (let alone Black) like a police officer shooting an unarmed woman in her own home after she called 911 for help (duly noted), inflation, and climate change.?

Anyone would then question the hosting organization's validity, integrity, and trustworthiness, negatively impacting its future ability to sustain safe spaces for the community it works to support.?

Here’s what we have to remember when we decide to attend a conference where we expect to feel safe, seen, and in the community:??

1. Affinity or otherwise, as long as we exist within a system that favors capitalism, clicks, and coverage over safety, we will always be forced to grapple with questions like those of Fred Sweets, from Associated Press editor and The St. Louis American who, while in attendance, wondered, “Are we Black first, or are we journalists?” This will never be ok, but we’re sleeping if this is surprising.??
2. The convention continued, y’all. Afternoon coffee and sweets were out on time; lifelong relationships were created, and awards were duly given. Because these types of atrocities occur in our daily lives, we move on quickly to survive, but we can be sure the post-conference leadership meetings have been kaleidoscopic.?
3. In all affinity organizations, there’s going to be drama. Why? We [insert racialized group of choice here] ARE NOT ALL THE SAME. Look, it’s been over 100 years, but we’ll never know why W.E.B. De Bois left the NAACP in 1934 other than his “different opinion about separate but equal,” but we all know it was a) more nuanced than that, 2) he went back ten years later. We will continue to see the positives (thank you, Black?journalists, Black Twitter, Black?Tiktok, Black IG for the healing), and have to believe that accountability will prevail?within?NABJ. It must, lest we count another win for the SoWSP’s (system of white supremacist patriarchy) divide-and-conquer game.?
4. Unlike the NAACP in 1934, a convention of thousands of Black?journalists (see thanks above)?left no shortage of posts, op-eds, and long-form publications from which we can form our own?opinions about what happened. When our friend asks, “What do the Blacks think?” at your next team meeting, you can kindly direct them (again) to the internet or their smart speaker to ask, “What is the definition of a monolith?”?

These conferences must continue to exist (and evolve). Please attend them, engage with their leadership, and go back next year. This 35-minute train wreck was a small snippet of a four-day conference.?

But/and/again/don’t forget(!):?

1. As we move forward with who may be our first Black, Asian, and Woman President, we have to remember and recognize when whiteness (in the case of NABJ, an ignorant former President who denied his opponent’s Blackness in front of an all-Black room..) will continue to project its own beliefs onto our many different communities, and that there will always be some underlying tone of this at any conference. It’s still not ok. Just stay ready.??
2. YOU MUST TAKE CARE OF YOU. Even though it was only 35 minutes, Rachel Scott, the Emmy Award-winning professional with?ten-toes-down seen worse,?deserves a sabbatical after the bright orange dumpster fire?she and her perfectly oversized sapphire suit had to endure. Regardless of the intensity of your profession, we are still human; hate is hurtful, and it is our collective responsibility to take care of each other, starting with ourselves.

To be clear: the hallways of conferences are where I’ve built my career, met people I will collaborate with for life, and thrived as a flaming extrovert. In these streets you can find me living?my very best life, looking snatched in a short suit,?over here,?over there,?bipping, bopping, never dropping, happy as a chocolate labradoodle at the beach.?

But try finding me after a conference? Ask La Keisha Landrum Pierre what my cut-and-run looks like.

Big crowds, networking, making connections, knowing how much is ok to drink at the closing happy hour (as close to zero as possible), what shoes to wear (I got you), whether or not to bring your laptop (don’t bother), and “being on” is HARD WORK.? Conflate that with an orange man telling your industry-relevant idol that she’s a nasty woman and giving Black Twitter at least a month’s worth of material before the breakfast buffet is cleared for lunch?! You can miss me on day two.?

We are only breaking the stitch of this Mary Poppins-sized pocket of knowledge, experience, and how-tos for networking, making connections, growing opportunities through conferences, and all things career-expanding.

In upcoming newsletters, you'll read about:

• investing in venture capital
• how to identify the right conferences to attend (and what to wear..)
• identifying potential mentors
• giving forward, up, over, and across
• relationships for career advancement
• how to avoid a career type-cast
• what else?

In the comments, let me know what questions you have and what you'd like to learn, and we'll make sure they're covered in upcoming editions.

see you next month,

Mandy b.