UNITY 2012 Convention

Pre-UNITY12 mixer in Phoenix

Pre-UNITY12 Media Mixer
Thursday, July 12, 5:30 until 7:30 p.m.
The District, in the Sheraton (Third Street and Van Buren) 

The countdown to the UNITY12 convention continues!

Meet and mingle with journos, editors and media professionals at the Pre-UNITY12 Media Mixer in Phoenix, sponsored by AAJA, ALMA, NABJ, NAHJ, NAJA and NLGJA. 



Escape the summer heat with happy-hour drink specials and appetizers. RSVP on Facebook to reserve your spot. 

Talk with people who’ve been to previous UNITY conventions, exchange phone numbers, find a roommate or even arrange a ride to Vegas.  

The pre-registration deadline for the best UNITY12 rate is June 29. Members of our alliance associations can come for as little as $225. Don’t miss out! 

Learn more about the UNITY12 journalism convention at unityconvention.org.

Relive the #UNITY12 Seattle mixer w videos, slideshow. 2 days left to get best rates for convention.

If you weren’t able to make our UNITY mixer in Seattle, here’s a virtual recreation of the event.  

We had a crowd of about 20 journalists of all backgrounds at Lucid Lounge in the U. District: Asian American, Latina, white, gay, student, professor, digital, TV, radio, nonprofit, ex- and job-seeking journalists. 

While everyone was ordering their happy hour drinks and mingling, we projected the #UNITY12 Twitter stream up on a screen and UNITY and alliance presidents Joanna Hernandez, David Steinberg, Doris Truong, Rhonda LeValdo all joined us via Twitter. UNITY Programming Co-Chairs Paul Cheung and Robert Hernandez also joined in the event via Twitter. Here’s a photo via AAJA Seattle President Sona Patel.

We showed this music video of Playing for Change performing “Stand By Me,” which we think captures the spirit of UNITY. 

UNITY VP Sharon Chan did a short slideshow about why you should think about coming to UNITY. Here is the slideshow:

We closed the presentation with this “One Love” video, again by Playing for Change. (This one has Asians in it.)

AAJA Seattle President Sona Patel announced a convention grant the chapter will award to help a laid-off journalist attend UNITY. She also highlighted the Northwest Journalists of Color scholarships, deadline April 15. This year the winner will receive a grant to attend the convention as well. Former scholarship winner Peter Sessum spoke about how the scholarships changed his life.

We raffled off two “J” pins and a $50 gift card to Lucid Lounge. Congratulations to the three winners, all students at the University of Washington. Thank you to Lucid for donating the gift card. If you haven’t been to Lucid lately, they have a new elevated stage and a great digital presentation setup (they handed Sharon an iPad to run the slideshow).

Don’t you wish you had been there? You have the chance to relive this UNITY experience… in Las Vegas at the convention on August 1-4! 

The early-bird registration rate for UNITY 2012 convention ends on March 16! The early bird rate is $325 for members, $150 for student members, $500 for non-members and $250 for student non-members. After March 16, rates go up $75!

Register now at unityconvention.org.

UNITY alliance members save on UNITY12

Have you joined one of the UNITY alliance associations so you can get the best rate on this year’s journalism convention?

You don’t have to be a member — we welcome everyone who wants to learn about better journalism through diversity! — but you’ll gain an instant network if you become a member of a UNITY organization. Plus, you’ll get even bigger savings on the UNITY12 early-bird rate (good only through Friday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific).

Be sure to sign up with your preferred journalism organization ASAP to give administrators time to upload your information to the UNITY12 registration database.

• Asian American Journalists Association
• National Association of Hispanic Journalists
• Native American Journalists Association
• National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association

UNITY12: Can you afford to not come?

Sign up by Friday to get the best rate: $325 for professionals who are members of any of the alliance associations (AAJA, NAHJ, NAJA or NLGJA).

Does $325 sound like a lot for journalism training?

Well, consider that you’ll have nearly four full days of forward-looking, information-packed sessions designed for the 24/7 digital journalist. That makes the price about $80 a day. And, with about eight hours of diverse programming to choose from each day, that’s just $10 an hour.

Break it down like that, and you can’t afford not to come to UNITY12, right?