Texas Press Association Convention &
Trade Show - Always time well spent!
I attended the 144th annual Texas Press Association Convention & Trade Show June 20-22 at the Hilton College Station Conference Center & Hotel in College Station along with several of my colleagues. We attended numerous informative sessions on current industry topics and participated in several Q and As. It’s always a great opportunity to network, see what others in the field are doing and compare notes. I usually come away feeling rejuvenated and ready to work harder. This year was no different.
In fact, I came away from this year’s convention more pumped up than ever, with fresh ideas and an eagerness to implement many of the things we learned. I can’t speak to whether or not other fields are evolving at the same rate as ours, but I do know that the ways in which we report the news and keep our communities informed are evolving at what sometimes seems like breakneck speed. And that’s okay. We’re ready to accept that challenge and will continue to serve our communities.
I took Hubby and Daughter with me as I usually do. It’s an opportunity to get them out of the house and allow them to mingle with a different set of people. As the Texas Press Association is a collaborator with the Freedom of Information Foundation, a Texas Open Government Seminar was added to the convention agenda with some bonus sessions offering refreshers on the Texas Public Information Act and Texas Open Meetings Act. These classes were slated to start promptly at 1 p.m. so we needed to grab some lunch before they dropped me off for class while they killed time until our hotel room was ready.
Just across a side street from our hotel was a place we had never heard of that looked interesting. It was called “Snooze an A.M. Eatery” and it was a fresh, updated take on a retro vibe that offered a dazzling array of creative breakfast, brunch and lunch fare.
Daughter selected “the snooze classic,” which was three cage-free eggs cooked over easy, with bacon, hash browns and toast. Hubby ordered “habanero pork belly breakfast fried rice,” which was jasmine-garlic fried rice with seared cider-braised habanero pork belly, sautéed red bell peppers, onions, poblanos, carrots and pineapple and topped with a drizzle of house-made Sriracha maple aioli, two crispy sunny-side up eggs, scallions and kimchi spice. I ordered chilaquiles, which were crispy corn tortilla chips layered with black beans and green chile and topped with house-made cilantro garlic aioli, two sunny-side up cage-free eggs, house-made pickled peppers & red onions, cotija cheese, cilantro and fresh lime. Every single bite was delicious, and it is safe to say that we will be on the lookout for “Snooze an A.M. Eatery” throughout our future travels.
Following classes on the second day, there was a luncheon in which new inductees to the Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame were recognized and honored, as well as the presentation of the Golden 50 Awards which recognize those who have worked in the newspaper industry 50 years or more.
The meal was your standard convention fare – grilled chicken breast, rice pilaf and steamed veggies. The star of the show, however, was the dessert, especially if you’re a chocoholic like I am. It was an obscenely huge slice of a layered chocolate cheesecake with toasted sliced almonds, a caramel drizzle and a dollop of whipped cream. It was super rich, but decadently fantastic.
Following the afternoon classes, we were bused out to the Lucky B Bison Ranch in Bryan where we viewed the herd of majestic and beautiful creatures before being treated to a Chuckwagon meal consisting of brisket, sausage, ribs, baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw and all the trimmings, followed up by a blackberry cobbler. It was all absolutely delicious.
The highlight of the evening, however, was a concert provided by Michael Martin Murphey. Widely referred to as America’s Number One Singing Cowboy, Murphey is a legendary, award-winning singer, songwriter and artist. I’d had the opportunity to meet Murphey two years prior, when he, his wife and some of her relatives had been in Livingston for a day of celebration.
The first of several events that day was the presentation of “One Feather: Walks in Two Worlds,” a historical musical production about Chief John Blount, principal chief of the Apalachicola Indians, and an ancestor of Murphey’s wife. Another was the unveiling of a historical marker for Blount near the newly restored Jonas Davis Log Cabin at Heritage Park. The culmination of the afternoon was the inauguration ceremony for Murphey’s wife, Chief Cynthia Healing Woman Tune Murphey, the new chief of the Apalachicola Band of Creek Indians. I’d covered the event for the paper and had even written a feature story on it that ran in the Summer 2022 issue of East Texan, our full-color quarterly magazine. It was a joyful and educational day that we all enjoyed, and Hubby and I even got to have our picture taken with Murphey.
When I learned that Murphey would be performing for the convention attendees, I went to CVS and had an 8x10 printed of that photo, thinking maybe I could get him to sign it. I also gathered five or six copies of that issue of the magazine to take to him as well.
Murphey came out a little bit before the performance to greet people and sign merch. I was the second in line to speak to him and he was quite surprised when I pulled out the photograph, even asking if he could take a picture of it to send to his wife. “Sure. But if you like that, you’re really going to like what else I brought,” I said, pulling out the magazines and turning the top one to my feature story on his visit. He was shocked, and again asked if he could take pictures of it for his wife. “I brought these for you. You can take them all to her,” I said. It was quite apparent that he was moved by it. As he excitedly texted his wife, I nervously looked at the lengthy line that was forming behind me. It was a nice exchange, the kind that leaves you feeling good, as I walked off to find Hubby and pick out some seats for the performance.
If you’re familiar at all with Murphey, then you already know that he is a consummate storyteller and that he peppers wonderful stories and anecdotes in between his songs throughout the performance. I never in a million years expected him to give me a shout out during the show, but sure enough, he did. Spotting me in the second row, he waved and called me out by name, telling everyone in the audience that I’d written about the restoration of his wife’s ancestor’s log cabin and even brought him copies of the magazine. Thanking me, he said, “The big city papers would have never done that.” That entire audience of newspaper folks looked at me, smiling and clapping. It was validation of the importance of the community newspaper, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face the rest of the evening.
Following classes the final morning, we all gathered in the convention hall where the trade show and silent auction had just ended, eager to find out who the winning bidders would be. We ended up being the successful bidders when it came to snagging two galvanized metal buckets that were overflowing with all kinds of official UT swag that had been provided by Moody College of Communication, the School of Journalism at UT. As our daughter will be attending The University of Texas at Austin this fall, we knew we couldn’t come home without it. It was replete with T-shirts, cups, tumblers, stickers, notecards, playing cards, a set of barbecue tools, bags and even a sock monkey-style longhorn among other things. We were all thrilled with it.
From there we reassembled for the final luncheon and awards contest. Lunch was quite a pleasant surprise, as it was steak topped with a caper and parsley-studded demi-glace, bacon and onion green beans and roasted potatoes, followed by a slice of strawberry cheesecake.
I’ve always enjoyed attending the annual Texas Press Association Convention because they do everything first class, but more importantly, it’s a great group of people and I always learn so much. This year was no exception.
“The goal is not simply to ‘work hard, play hard.’ The goal is to make our work and our play indistinguishable.”
-- Simon Sinek
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