Party With A Purpose by Patricia Andrews-Keenan- "NAMIC's Offical Conference Blogger"

Yesterday’s Reception for NAMIC’s Executive Leadership Development Program in the Pinnacle Peak Room of the Holland & Hart Building was turned into a party with a purpose as the alumni of the prestigious program at UCLA’s Anderson School pledged monetary support to the organization.

The most recent graduating class – Class VIII – presented the organization with a $5,000 donation to the NAMIC Foundation. They followed in the footsteps of other alumni (the first being my Class III) in giving back to NAMIC. But the trash talking got under way seriously as each class made their own commitments and pledges. Robin Johnson, ELDP instructor extraordinaire, made sure to identify alumni from each class to put together a challenge as we enter year 10 of the program.

Scripps Networks was, for the fifth year, a host of the ELDP reception and as always they added a little fun to the preceding by stirring up some competition with their new WII game, “Cooked or Be Cooked”, where players actually slice, dice and chop their way through a gourmet meal. Seth Arenstein concocted a multi course meal with Salmon as his main dish. Cindy McConkey, tried her hand at a breakfast of bacon and eggs and NAMIC President Kathy Johnson tried her hand at quesadillas. Ok, I’ll be honest, the reception food was much more appetizing. The specialty martini was to die for.

And as always there was a lot of networking going on, as we welcomed Class IX to the fold. Congrats were offered to Michael Smith, newly promoted GM of the Food Channel. We heard Michael Armstrong, BET, is heading to Africa at the end of the week and we marveled at the comedy stylings of NAMIC VP of Education Jim Jones.

We are waiting with bated breath to see how many of the ELDP alumni make the list for Cable’sMost Influential Minorities today.

Oh, and I told you the weather would change.

Ciao.

Patricia Andrews-Keenan, President, The Tallulah Group