01/31/12

Party Like It’s 2012—with 15,000 Members of Media and 6,000 Delegates Coming

The Charlotte in 2012 Convention Host Committee has announced a total of thirteen venues they’ve selected to host welcome events for the approximately 15,000 members of the media and 6,000 delegates who are expected to arrive in Charlotte the first week in September for the Democratic National Convention.

Usually I write about parties over on the Dusk Till Dawn blog, but this is DNC style, baby (and several months away). Though it’s probably not fair to tell you about events that the... Read more »

Posted at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/24/12

A Week Left to Vote in DNC Poster Contest

The Committee for Charlotte in 2012 launched a contest, in November, asking artists to design a poster for the 2012 Democratic National Convention. By the December 31 deadline, more than 300 designs were submitted. The host committee’s team narrowed it down to twelve finalists, and opened up voting to the public last week.

Your votes will decide the winner. It’s simple: the entry receiving the most votes will become one of the official posters of the convention, which will be sold with other official DNC merchandise. The winning artist will receive $1 commission for each poster sold.

There are some... Read more »

Posted at 04:12 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/20/12

DNCC CEO Steve Kerrigan On ‘Flashpoint’ Sunday

You can catch Steve Kerrigan, CEO of the Democratic National Convention Committee, on this Sunday’s (January 22) episode of Flashpoint. The weekly political affairs show, hosted by veteran news anchor Dave Wagner, airs at 9:30 a.m. on WCNC (channel 36; channel 6 on Time Warner Cable).

Now that the dust has settled a little from the DNCC’s big announcements this week, Kerrigan will talk more about the decisions to shorten the convention by a day—replacing it with a public event at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Labor... Read more »

Posted at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/18/12

Media, Protesters, and Twitter—A Day with the DNC

Even though I—and Charlotte magazine’s editor, Richard Thurmond—were among the 500 journalists who attended today’s Democratic National Convention Winter Media Walkthrough, there isn’t much news to actually report from the roughly six-hour-long event.

Media from Charlotte and around the state, national outlets from around the country, and international press from countries such as Qatar, Canada, England, Japan, and France were given tours of Time Warner Cable Arena, where the first two days of the September convention will be held; Charlotte Convention Center, where media will set up workspace during convention week; and Bank of America Stadium, where the final night of the... Read more »

Posted at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/17/12

DNCC Hosts Party for Media

The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) hosted a party for media tonight at NASCAR Hall of Fame. The event was to welcome the hundreds of visiting journalists who are participating in the DNC Winter Media Walkthrough tomorrow, which is scheduled to include tours of Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte Convention Center, and Bank of America Stadium, while also explaining the media logistics for those of us who will be covering the convention in September.

NASCAR Hall of Fame was an excellent choice of venue. Not only does its management, I’m sure, value the exposure of being in front of journalists from around the country, but the venue also provided an entertaining atmosphere to people who might not be very familiar with the sport and its importance to... Read more »

Posted at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/17/12

A Tale of Two Naming Rights for DNC Host Sites: Charlotte and BofA

As expected, numerous national news outlets have been reporting this afternoon on this morning’s announcement that the final day of the Democratic National Convention will take place at Bank of America Stadium, where President Barack Obama will accept his party’s nomination. Also packaged with this morning’s announcement from the DNCC was that the convention will be shortened from four days to three (Tuesday, September 4-Thursday, September 6), so now the Monday of that week, which is Labor Day, will feature a community celebration and organizing event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Tuesday and Wednesday’s convention events will still be... Read more »

Posted at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/17/12

President Obama Will Take the Stage in Bank of America Stadium…And You Were the First to Know

Yesterday, the Democratic National Convention Committee announced its “First to Know Breaking News” campaign, in which it encouraged “Americans to sign up to be the first to know breaking news about the convention” by registering at demconvention.com/sign-up.asp. DNC officials pledge to send you emails, sometimes before they speak to media. That was the case with this morning’s big announcement of major changes to the Democratic National Convention's format.

DNCC CEO Steve Kerrigan sent an email to subscribers alerting them of the news at approximately 10:20 a.m. this morning, while the press conference at Bank of America Stadium didn’t begin until 11 a.m.

Posted at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/17/12

Busy Week—Already—and in the Making for the Democratic National Convention

It’s only Tuesday, but it’s already been a busy week for news coming from the Democratic National Convention Committee. The DNCC’s communications office began disseminating a series of press releases yesterday through about noon today, which culminated with the big press conference this morning at Bank of America Stadium that announced major changes to the 2012 Democratic National Convention’s format for the first week in September. All of this is ahead of tomorrow’s planned media event in which hundreds of local, national, and international journalists (including yours truly) are scheduled to attend an all-day media walkthrough led by the DNCC.

Be sure to check out Read more »

Posted at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/15/12

Political Campaigns as Reality TV

After seeing so much of the television news hype and coverage of the Republican caucuses and primaries, as the process—and presidential candidates—go from state to state (currently they’re just south of us in South Carolina), it had me wondering if this could be a forecast into what we’ll see in Charlotte come late summer.

The Democratic National Convention will be different since we already know who the Dems’ candidate is, but with 10,000 members of the press expected to come here to cover the event, it will be a grander stage. (Hundreds of journalists from... Read more »

Posted at 04:25 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/10/12

Likelihood of Protesters During the DNC: What’s All the Fuss About?

Talk of the City of Charlotte potentially enacting new laws to clamp down on anticipated protesters during the Democratic National Convention has been making news for weeks. The issues at the center of the controversy came to a head at last night’s City Council meeting where dozens of people spoke out against proposed new ordinances that would prohibit citizens from carrying certain items such as backpacks, bars, chains, and pepper spray in uptown areas near the site of the DNC in September. There are also proposed changes that would ban camping, i.e. setting up tents, on city property, which has angered Occupy Charlotte members, who reportedly made up... Read more »

Posted at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/04/12

DNCC and OFA-NC Hit the Ground Running in the New Year

Now that 2012 has arrived, we’ll no longer refer to the Democratic National Convention as “next year.” And the first week of the New Year is a busy one for Democratic National Convention Committee officials as well as President Obama’s Charlotte campaign team.

As I type this, staffers from the DNCC are in Durham. The committee, including CEO Steve Kerrigan, held a press conference this afternoon to announce that it is depositing convention funds into two North Carolina minority-owned banks. The DNCC deposited two million dollars each in non-interest bearing accounts with Mechanics and Farmers Bank and the Latino Community Credit Union. Kerrigan was joined by bank... Read more »

Posted at 01:14 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0