Day 4-Matt Shelton

Todays' lecturers were Travis Dredd, Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) Deputy CEO for Inside the Hall Operations ,Cameron Moody, DNCC Deputy CEO for Outside the Hall Operations, Tom Reed, Journalist for The Washington , Denver Host Committee Chief Operations Officer, and Wally Podrazik, DNCC Director of Media Logistics.

Mr. Dredd and Moody both spoke of the what exactly goes into the planning of this historic convention. Inside the Hall Operations deals with the construction, production, inside design, media logistics, and hall management. Mr. Dredd also deals with four media pavilions and all their wiring, lights and cameras. Mr. Moody on the other hand deals with the outside portion of the convention. Outside the Hall Operations include security, housing for all VIP's, credentials to gain access to important events, and transportation. Transportation operations include meet and greets at the Denver airport to help people get to where they need to be. With the help of GM, 400 hybrid vehicles will be transporting political officeholders, staff, VIP's, and chairs. The transportation department also is charged with coordinating the bus system to and from the convention.  It also deals with special ADA transportation services.

The housing department, which is where I will be volunteering during the convention, deals with placing the delegates. About 17,000 hotel rooms have been reserved for delegates from all 50 states. I will be working with the delegates from Utah, so if your a delegate from Utah, find me and I will be more than happy to help you out!

The Outside the Hall Operations Security Department coordinates with local law enforcement to secure the outside perimeter while the inside security is coordinated with the Secret Service. 

Lastly, the Credentials Department designs, prints, and matches the access level of credentials to all secure events. 

We were then lucky enough to have Tom Reed, journalist for The Washington Post, to come speak to us. Mr. Reed has covered 20 American presidential campaigns and has worked in Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and Europe. He was set to talk to us about his experience in covering elections. He testified to what Michael Genovese said before, covering foreign campaigns was much easier because they only take a fraction of the time American campaigns do. It was less of a lecture and more of a number of stories of his past experience. He had some really great stories of covering the Reagan campaign as well as Tony Blair and Ed Clark. 

Last on the list of speakers was Wally Podrazik. He is a writer concentrating a lot on pop culture but who also had some involvement in this convention. He spoke of how the Pepsi Center, home of the DNC, was so dramatically changed. After all of this we finally received our fieldwork positions. As I stated before I will be in the housing department for the Utah delegates. Hopefully it will all go well and I will be able to make into Invesco Field for Sen. Obamas' acceptance speech!