Centerfield

Advice To A Republican Convention Blogger

Michele of A Small Victory will be blogging the Republican convention. She asks

What I'm wondering is this: What time do things usually get cranking during the day and what time do they wrap up at night? I'm thinking of not staying in the city at all, but going home to Long Island each night and coming back in the morning (I could also then have a blogger or two crash at my place with me, as long as you are relatively well behaved, clean cut and won't frighten my children and/or husband). So if I go home late at night, what's the general time I should expect to get back into Manhattan in the morning in order to not miss anything of relative importance?

The Democratic convention, which I've been blogging, has events scheduled from 7:30AM to 2:00AM. You have to miss something. What to miss depends on what your priorities are.

I've skipped the post-convention parties, which run from 11PM to 2AM. Those are networking events, but I've been able to meet the people I was particuarly interested in meeting at other events during daylight hours. I have missed out on meeting some celebrities, but c'est la vie.

I skipped the 7:30 AM breakfast meetings, which are only of interest if you are following a particular state delegation.

The events I've liked best are the caucus or interest group meetings which occur during the day, between 10AM and 4PM. These don't get much coverage in the news, but this is where you can meet the political operatives.

The speeches start at 4PM, but the important ones don't start until 9PM. So between 4PM and 7PM is a good time to rest up for a late night.

I figured out the first night that the speeches look the same in person as they do on TV, except the people are smaller, and the sound is distorted. What's fun is to wander around and talk to people--especially the journalists, both ones you've seen on TV and other working journalists whose names are not familiar. I've also chatted with delegates, but I've found that journalists are more articulate--not surprising considering their profession.

People will want to talk to you, and if there are people you've always wanted to talk to, you might try pre-arranging interviews. Take a digital camera and maybe even a tape recorder or binoculars. But don't overload yourself in the morning, because you'll be getting free stuff during the day.

Posted by rickheller at July 29, 2004 04:48 PM