Hi, everyone! I just wanted to take a moment to welcome you to beautiful San Diego – home of beautiful beaches, the world famous San Diego Zoo and the 2007 National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Assocation's conference. My name is Kevin A. Barry, and I am the official blogger (read: your “online tour guide”) of the NLGJA conference for the next couple of days.
In this blog, I hope to help everyone experience the NLGJA conference along with me – through my eyes – whether you are here, were unable to make it, or considering joining us in Washington, DC next year!
Now, I'm sure there are some of you who are thinking, “Who the heck is this guy?” I know I would be. So, I'll tell you. I'm a freelance writer and public relations professional who is passionate about philanthropy, LGBT issues, health and education. I've lived in Philadelphia, New York, London, Prague and currently reside in Los Angeles. I'm currently helping with public relations efforts on a major breast cancer walk in several American cities and a groundbreaking new diabetes walk in Philadelphia.
What I will be striving to do with this blog is offer you my day-by-day take on events at the NLGJA conference. Since this is my first conference, we will both be experiencing it for the first time together. You can expect daily reports and commentary from the conference in San Diego over the next couple of days, and when possible, I will give more than one update a day. Besides offering my commentary throughout the weekend, I want to invite you to e-mail me with any questions that you may have. I will do my best to answer your questions or to direct you to someone who will. My e-mail is kevin.in.media@gmail.com.
My expectations of this conference are simple. I expect to have intelligent dialogue with like-minded individuals who share my passion for writing. I expect to run into old friends and to meet new ones. I hope to make a few new business contacts. Moreover, I want to know what brings people back to this conference year after year. I've heard so many great things and I want to see if they are true.
I look forward to sharing my journey with you (and to those of you in attendance, I look forward to meeting you soon!). Oh and one more thing…I have a bit of a snarky, dry sense of humor, so if you have to read something twice, chalk it up to sarcasm. I really am a nice guy.
