NBC University: The Art of the Pitch (Pre-registration required)

When

Thursday, August 29, 2019    
11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Where

Frenchman II
444 St Charles Ave, New Orleans
Map Unavailable

Get your stories green-lit by learning from senior newsroom leaders about what makes for success with example critiques of submitted pitches. The event will be followed by a networking lunch. Pre-registration required: http://bit.ly/nbcuatnlgja

Speakers: David Douglas, Kevin Flynn, Joe Fryer, Kendis Gibson, Christina Ginn, Elizabeth Kuhr, Victor Limjoco, Yvette Miley, Jesse Rodriguez, Brooke Sopelsa

DAVID DOUGLAS is an NBC News producer based in Los Angeles. From there, he works on stories you see on “NBC Nightly News,” “TODAY” and NBCNews.com. In addition to covering news in the American West, he focuses some of his time covering environmental issues for the network with Chief Environmental Affairs correspondent Anne Thompson. Recently, he traveled to the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea to look at how an endangered species of bird holds promise to help the two countries find a reason to cooperate. Prior to joining NBC News, he was a senior producer for the Al Jazeera Media Network. He is an alumnus of Elon University.

KEVIN FLYNN is an executive producer at CNBC. He currently produces “Fast Money.” Flynn joined CNBC in 2010. He has been instrumental in producing several key events for the network, including CNBC’s 2011 and 2015 Republican Presidential Debates, CNBC’s “Stock Draft” and numerous primetime specials. Flynn also serves as co-lead of CNBC’s OUT@NBCUniversal chapter. Prior to joining CNBC, Flynn worked on the digital team at NBC News. Flynn holds a degree from New York University.

JOE FRYER joined NBC News in 2013. He is a correspondent based in Los Angeles, reporting for “NBC Nightly News,” “TODAY” and MSNBC. He has covered some of the world’s biggest stories, including the Las Vegas mass shooting, Hurricane Harvey, the deadly Wine Country wildfires and 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. He has also interviewed some of the world’s biggest stars, including Madonna, Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez. Before joining the network, he reported for KING 5 News, where he focused on in-depth reports and daily assignments. Fryer also worked at KARE-TV in Minneapolis, WTVF-TV in Nashville, WBAY-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and WKYT-TV in Lexington, Kentucky. Fryer’s a proud graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He has been honored with four National Edward R. Murrow Awards, including the prestigious Writing Murrow in 2006. He has been nominated for two national Emmys and has won 19 regional Emmys. His awards shelf also includes 11 regional Murrows, two National Headliners and three Sigma Delta Chi Awards.

KENDIS GIBSON joined MSNBC in 2019 as a weekend anchor for “MSNBC Live” on Saturdays and Sundays. Previously, Gibson served as anchor of ABC News’ “America This Morning” and “World News Now,” delivering a unique mix of the latest headlines and one-of-a-kind signature segments. His work was seen across all ABC News programming, including “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight with David Muir,” “Nightline, “20/20,” “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” and ABC News Digital. Gibson joined ABC News in 2014 as a correspondent and anchor after spending time in local and national networks. Prior to joining ABC News, Gibson served as anchor and reporter based in Washington, D.C., during the Obama presidency. He reported on politics and led coverage of historic events, as well as the deadly Navy Yard shooting and the aftermath and recovery following Hurricane Sandy. He was born and raised in Belize, Central America, and spent his teenage years in Brooklyn, New York.

CHRISTINA GINN is an Emmy-winning executive producer for MSNBC’s “Velshi & Ruhle.” For 20 years, she has partnered with some of the top talent in the industry including Ali Velshi, Stephanie Ruhle, Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper, Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, Brooke Baldwin and many other talented anchors, reporters and producers at CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS in local and network television. She played a major role developing new programming and channel architecture for a 24-hour news channel in a highly competitive top-20 market. Ginn was awarded a Peabody Award for her work on the Gulf oil spill and an Emmy for her CNN breaking-news coverage of the Arab Spring. She produced live coverage of terror attacks, wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, state funerals, royal weddings and every presidential election from Bill Clinton’s in 1996 to Donald Trump’s in 2016.  

ELIZABETH KUHR is an associate producer at “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.” She supervises edits, covers protests and press conferences from the field and films interviews with politicians on her Canon. Kuhr also contributes video and print reports to NBC News’ digital platforms. She was nominated for an Emmy and a GLAAD Media award for her TV stories on safe injection sites and the rise of LGBTQ candidates in Texas, respectively. She thinks video is the most powerful way to tell today’s stories.

VICTOR LIMJOCO is a three-time Emmy Award-winning producer for “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” with 16 years of experience between media, technology and strategy. His stories include coverage of the Moore, Oklahoma, tornado outbreak, the heroin crisis in America, Gabby Douglas and the gold-medal winning women’s gymnastics team at the London Olympic Games and the “Miracle on the Hudson” plane crash. Limjoco graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He received his master’s from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also spent much of the last year at NBC News Strategic Content, driving more than 30 projects between ad sales and NBC NEWS and MSNBC, including the 50th anniversary of Stonewall.

YVETTE M. MILEY is a senior vice president for MSNBC and NBC News, responsible for talent management and development of news personnel both on and off camera. She is the executive in charge of weekend, overnight, breaking news and special events programming on MSNBC, as well as NBC’s “Early Today” broadcasts. Additionally, Miley is the head of diversity and inclusion for NBC News and MSNBC, focused on the retention and recruitment of leading journalists in the industry. Miley also served as executive editor of thegrio.com, a website targeting African Americans. In June 2016, Miley was tapped as executive-in-charge of the NBC News digital platform NBCOUT, the first LGBTQ news vertical created by a major broadcast media organization. Before joining MSNBC and NBC News, Miley was vice president and news director of the Miami/Fort Lauderdale-based NBC-owned and operated television station NBC 6/WTVJ. Miley is the recipient of many of the industry’s highest honors. Miley has received numerous awards, including three Emmy Awards, 10 Edward R. Murrow Awards and the NABJ Chuck Stone Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. Miley is a native of Riviera Beach, Florida and a graduate of the University of Florida.
JESSE RODRIGUEZ (he/him) is the New York-based director of booking for MSNBC, focusing on the channel’s weekday morning show, “Morning Joe,” daytime hours of news coverage and primetime programming. Before joining the “Morning Joe” team, he was a booking producer on MSNBC’s “The Dylan Ratigan Show” for two years following his time as a planning producer for MSNBC’s daytime news, where he coordinated daily coverage of the 2008 presidential election. He started at NBC News in 2007 as an assignment editor on the network’s national news assignment desk. Before that, Rodriguez was with CBS’s Miami affiliate WFOR-TV as the weeknight assignment editor. Rodriguez was instrumental in breaking the news of Fidel Castro’s 2006 transfer of power to his brother Raul Castro, leading the station to be the first English-language news organization to break the story. Rodriguez is the 2002 Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards national winner for Literature and Journalism. He attended Florida International University, where he studied international relations. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and NLGJA.
BROOKE SOPELSA is the editorial manager of NBCOut, the LGBTQ digital destination launched by NBC News in June 2016. Under Sopelsa’s leadership, nbcout.com seeks to both enlighten and entertain by showcasing enterprise reporting, original video and other unique content about and of interest to the LGBTQ community. During her three-year tenure, NBCOut has consistently been one of the most popular sections of NBC News Digital. In addition to assigning and editing breaking LGBTQ news stories, feature articles and video reports, Sopelsa has also spearheaded a number of franchises and special projects, including the annual #Pride30 list and the four-part series “Stonewall 50: The Revolution.” Prior to her return to the NBC family, Sopelsa was a producer at the Huffington Post, where she developed and produced live news and lifestyle segments. Before joining HuffPost, she spent six years at NBC: first as a writer/producer for CNBC.com and then as a producer for MSNBC.com, where she earned a GLAAD Media Award nomination for her multimedia report on the contemporary voguing scene. Sopelsa started her career in journalism as a production assistant and shortly thereafter an on-air reporter at Time Warner Cable Channel 10 News in Bergen County, New Jersey.
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