First, The Weekly's art critic, Margaret Regan, won a really big-deal award.
Second, it was good to hang out with the folks who publish The Weekly's alt-weekly brethren across the country and the world. There are a lot of good people in this business, and we all have a lot in common--similar challenges, similar opportunities, etc.
Third, seeing all the different newspapers and talking to all the different people helped those of us who attended spawn new ideas for own newspaper.
And those ideas will come in handy over the next year--which promises to be one of the most exciting in The Weekly's history. In 38 issues, if my math is right, we'll officially celebrate our 20th anniversary--a celebration you'll be sure to notice. We're also in the beginning stages of doing a total redesign for the paper (which, seeing as we've had the same basic look for almost a decade now, is needed).
My four days in Pittsburgh helped me step out of the day-to-day grind to take a look at the newspaper's future. And it's an exciting thing to see.
