It’s not too early to start thinking about the UNITY Journalists of Color Convention in Las Vegas next year! Save the date for Aug. 1-4, 2012. This will be the place to find a job in journalism, get the most innovative training in journalism and connect with your fellow Asian American, Hispanic and Native American journalists. Come find us at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Convention Center. To stay in the loop, join our Facebook group UNITY Convention 2012: Las Vegas.

— Sunny Wu

You are unpacking from your AAJA experience in Detroit. You have tips on all things journalism, job leads, a stack of business cards and the desire to stay connected to your journalism peers.

In the last several hours, I read several e-mails from AAJA Ford Fellows who wished they had all met at the convention together and cultivated relationships.

So I created a Facebook Group for the fellows and we now have nearly 30 fellows eager to network and discuss their AAJA experiences.

Here are some tips to nurture your new and established relationships:

• Social Media Meet Ups:  Develop your relationships virtually. The world is a global village. Join the Facebook Ford Fellows group. http://on.fb.me/nJmBjg

• Take Notes: As the days go by, you are likely to forget some or many of the conversations you had with your journalism peers. If you’ve scribbled on business cards and stickies, now is the time to transfer them and highlight the important conversations for follow-ups.

• Thank You Notes: If anyone has made an impression on you, offered to help in any way, please say “Thank You.” It’s an under-utilized gesture and one that helps to make you stand out from the crowd.

• Pick Up the Phone: Take your virtual conversations off-line. There’s nothing like hearing someone’s voice or seeing them on the other end of the communication line. Whether you use a mobile device, a traditional phone or Skype, make human contact.

— Furhana Afrid

How are you going to scale your website? What’s your revenue model? How much overhead does your startup have?

These were just a few questions and issues that were thrown out during Friday’s panel, “Journalists As Entrepreneurs: A Pitchfest.” (While I didn’t attend that morning’s “Funding Innovative Ideas Workshop,” one person who attended both said they were very similar.)

It’s notable just how panels at the AAJA convention continue to evolve and change. When I attended my first AAJA conference, panels were just starting to address the multimedia landscape. Last week, there were two panels dedicated to entrepreneurial journalists or former journalists who are focusing on their own startups.

So what kind of programming does AAJA (or Unity) need at its next convention?

How about a panel that addresses what those startup/Internet buzzwords mean: scale, VCs, angels, series a and b, etc.

How about a panel that coaches attendees how to pitch their ideas.

How about a panel that talks about how first-time entrepreneurs can connect with venture capitalists, angel investors and firms.

How about a networking opportunity with investors or firms who have already invested and launched media/journalism startups.

Those are just a few ideas as AAJA and the convention continues to stay current with the industry and times.

At the very least, the panels should make us sound better than these guys.

-Sunny Wu @skdub | @sportsandfood

Though I’ve been a journalist for nearly half my life, this is my first year joining AAJA and my first convention. I wished I’d found my way to you sooner. 

The incredible support, friendship, mentoring and fellowship I discovered here at my first AAJA convention felt like a homecoming of sorts. I’m new to AAJA but old timers and newbies alike made me feel welcomed, and being among you felt more like a rediscovery of a favorite memory than an initiation.

And I learned from all of you: storytellers of all different levels, ethnic backgrounds, media, and geographic locations.

Whether it was ap-by-ap tactics on speedwriting for multiple platforms or the soft skills of how some finesse awkward sitches of stereotyping into narrative gold, by talking and connecting with a body of peeps who embraced our differences through a common goal, I felt inspired and often humbled.  

It reinforced my love of the craft, galvanized my sense of why I love to tell stories, but what’s more, it’s was a fruitful reminder of the smart, fun-loving and committed friends from all walks of life and gene pools that I have in my fellow journalists. I feel honored for the inclusion of this event. 

The recession has hit most of us hard and I’m no exception. As a writer, I’d always considered myself as a lone wolf. Being a first generation Korean-Canadian immigrant to the US during the worst downturn in 80 years of US history only reinforced this sense.

But here, I understood the joy of connecting and contributing to a chorus of hardworking storytellers not just in the blues but in the refrain of hopes and things to come. This year, AAJA has been a lifeline in keeping me from becoming jaded or discouraged - or going into another field altogether. But that would be too easy of a story.

And great stories defy expectation, give us a sliver of redemption and always offer an ending of a memorable connection or disconnection. I chose to connect. 

So thank you, AAJA, for allowing a verdant space in which to embrace and connect with all the differences and freakiness my Asian American background brings and leaving post-it notes for me on how to channel them into narrative gold. 

So, thank you to the Ford Foundation for giving me the breathing space to fully dive into this week because without your support, I’d be squirreled away in my room at nights, barfing out copy and pitching stories, to be able to be here. Instead, I was listening. Questioning. Learning. And singing along to karoke.

Most of all, thank you, AAJA, the Ford Foundation, sponsors, my fellow delegates, and my chapter in beautiful Chicago for investing in the time and support in me — and really, all of us — as storytellers to be able to contribute to a richer, chunkier and funkier sense of the human experience through our chosen practice of writing.

I miss you all already.

— Susan Oh

David Hunke, president and publisher of USA Today, was the keynote speaker at AAJA’s gala Saturday night.

Hunke gave an impassioned speech about journalism’s core principles: justice, integrity, dignity, truth. He shared a story from his youth, when a young girl decided to “draw the line in the sand” against bullies. It seemed to resonate with all the attendees, who gave him a standing ovation at the end.

But during the speech, I thought about tweeting, “Wonder where Gannett drew the line in the last round of layoffs?”

But I decided it was unfair and snarky, especially without context.

But with a little more room in a blog post, I think it’s a valid question to ask: how will journalism  be “all right” — Hunke’s words — if corporations and their executives and boards don’t draw the lines themselves?

For example:

— Just this past June Gannett laid off 700 people, many of them journalists at its community newspapers.

— Gannett has cut 20,000 jobs since Craig Dubow became its CEO in 2005

— Yet, Gannett executives were granted millions in bonuses earlier this year.

Yes, this issue is more complex than what one blog post can address. Yes, public, for-profit companies must answer to stockholders and Wall Street. Yes, journalism isn’t the only industry affected by the down economy.

But let’s not sit in a ballroom and listen to a feel-good speech and not acknowledge that Gannett has angered and alienated many journalists. It has also ended many journalism careers.

Journalism will always be “all right” because there are so many passionate journalists who value information, accountability and the truth. They’re just doing it in different ways — as non-profits, startups, bloggers, entrepreneurs.

They are drawing the line in the sand every day.

What about Gannett? If they did, that would be worth a real standing ovation.

- Sunny Wu @skdub | @sportsandfood

I spent my last day at the AAJA convention attending the “Through the Lens: Vincent Chin’’ photo exhibit and screening at the Chinese American Community Center in Madison Heights.

We were whisked from the hotel to the community center by a fleet of cars from Buick. Pretty impressive and (as my teens would say) cool. And, even more cool was the fact that right before the screening we were fed a delicious Dim Sum brunch.

It was a very informative documentary and even though I knew a lot about the Vincent Chin case it opened my eyes even wider. I am planning to find the film “Who Killed Vincent Chin?’’ so I can view it.

I came back to the hotel and took a long walk (and some well-needed exercise) around Hart Plaza. I couldn’t believe how it had expanded. In fact, downtown Detroit is so different from when I worked at the Detroit Free Press 23 years ago.

The fabulous banquet and gala was the highlight of my day. Sitting in the audience taking in all the awards and all the merriment made me realize how much journalism is an important part of my life and how AAJA is really my extended family.

As I continue to pound the pavement looking for a job I really hope I can find a way back into the industry full time. I would be very sad and really would hate to walk away from AAJA and a relationship that I have spent 23 years cultivating and nurturing.

Happy 30^th anniversary AAJA! I am glad I was able to be a part of this celebration.

A special thanks to the Ford Foundation, without my grant I would not have been able to attend the convention.

— Carol Reynolds-Srot

Hi folks. Theodore Kim here. To all of our faithful Ford Foundation bloggers: Kudos to all of you for taking the time to blog about your thoughts and experiences. Many of your posts were thoughtful and illuminating.

We encourage you to consider cultivating your own blogs as it always seems to get the creative juices flowing. I’ll make one last sweep of our Tumblr inbox tonight, so if you have any final thoughts you wanted to share, send them in today.

Thanks again, and I’ll see you online!

— Theodore Kim | @TheoTypes

Over the course of several days at the AAJA convention in Detroit, I attended six different workshops, reunited with old colleagues, developed new relationships, received some career advice and even found time to spend a few hours in Canada for the first time in my life.

Yet as I reflect on my convention experience from my home in Minneapolis, I have to say that I feel a renewed sense of passion for the profession I chose.

I’ve been unemployed since January. Yes, I’ve done some occasional freelance work, but nothing that would allow me to make a living. Needless to say, the past few months have been discouraging as I’ve struggled to find a full time job. But after talking with people at the Detroit convention — people who still have the burning desire to tell stories and act as watchdogs in their communities despite the current status of the industry — I not only have a renewed sense of optimism, but I’ve also been reminded that journalism is not just a job, but an important public service. And with this newfound sense of optimism, I can safely say that a career change won’t be in the cards for me anytime soon (despite the warnings of some people during the workshops I attended about how journalism is a dying industry with a broken business model).

So once again, I thank AAJA and the Ford Foundation for making my trip to Detroit possible. 

I look forward to seeing some old and new faces next year at UNITY in Las Vegas. 

— Delane Cleveland, AAJA Minnesota 

So folks are filtering back to homes, jobs and schools, and I have a couple more hours to spend at the RenCen before hopping a flight back to Sacramento. If you’re a little younger, like me, and leaving one of your first conventions, you might need to take a few minutes to wrap your head around everything you did and learned. Here are a few suggestions about things to do post-convention (after you get some sleep, and maybe regain your hearing from karaoke) to make sure the experience carries over, courtesy of Bobby Calvan, a veteran newspaper reporter and AAJA National Board rep from the Sacramento chapter:

- Think back on everyone you talked to, go through the business cards you collected, and reflect on those conversations. Jot down a few notes on what you talked about and the advice that was offered, while it’s still fresh.

- Reconnect with the people you met, whether by email or Facebook. For those who really went out of their way to share their expertise, or gave advice that really hit home for you, write them a thank-you note.

- Make use of the stuff you learned in workshops and seminars by putting it to use. If you’re a print reporter who went to an audio session, for example, try using an audio element in an online package, or something that will let you experiment with the new skills you acquired.

- Email the other members of your chapter, who weren’t able to attend, to let them know what workshops you did and that they can contact you if they want to learn more about what you learned. Or gather your notes, and whatever handouts and links were provided, and email those out.

- Reflect on why events like this are important – reminding you about how joyful it is being part of a community within journalism.

This being my second convention, that last part really resonated with me. It was good seeing a lot of the same people from last year in addition to meeting new ones. Detroit was great (“authentic,” as it was described at the gala last night, was a well-chosen word). And thanks again to the Ford Foundation for allowing me to attend.

— Matt Kawahara, AAJA Sacramento