Converging in Charleston

This week, I’m in Charleston, South Carolina, for the National Press Photographers Association’s Convergence 10 conference. We wrapped up day one an hour or so ago with a great talk on copyright, just 13 hours after we kicked it off with a panel discussion centered around the question of what is journalism now. In between were a dozen other talks on technical, aesthetic and practical issues being faced by visual journalists today.

The hallway banter has been excellent – lots of good conversations, lots of good connections, lots of learning. I’ve met new people, found old friends and discovered that one team of presenters (here to talk about Craig Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning package) all have ties, in some way, shape or form, to my home town. It is very weird.

The crowd is a little thinner than we’d hoped, but the economy is to blame for that. To keep those not here in the loop, I brought along a couple of my students who have been blogging various sessions on the NPPA web site. They’re taking notes and then furiously writing and posting during the breaks, and will continue to do so through out the remaining two days. Check back in regularly to see what you’re missing – it’s a great event so far, should only get better.