Monday, April 29, 2013

WHCD: A Festival of the Media, By the Media

White House Correspondents Dinner 2013

The 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD) was held on April 27th at the Washington Hilton. I was invited to a pre-dinner party by Thomson Reuters and got a chance to experience the spirit of the White House Correspondents Dinner. The venue is very convenient, a few blocks from the Dupont Circle Metro (I expect not many attendees would use the Metro) and about 2 miles from the White House

The lobby of the Washington Hilton has a section cordoned off for photographers and when any celebrity enters you can see the flash bulbs go off and the celebrities stop and pose for the photos. Nothing of this kind happened as I walked in ;). The main event is a "back tie" affair. The receptions (Yes- There are many of them) also specify black tie yet it didn't seem to matter as long as you dressed well.The 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner is a celebration of the media and a chance to mingle with the subject of their reports in a causal atmosphere. The Thomson Reuters party had a Photo Wall where they showcased the best pictures from Reuters which were amazing and memorable. Any organization sponsoring events would like to reinforce their brand and Thomson Reuters did a great job. There were many celebrities at the Thomson Reuters party including Kathleen Turner and actors from Downtown Abbey.
White House Correspondents Dinner 2013

Celebrity Spotting was fun. Ariana Huffington very gracefully responded to my greeting.

@ArianaHuff got a great welcome at #whcd

Other celebrities I recognized - Aasif Mandvi, Julia Dreyfuss, Nicole Kidman (My photo is blurry), Gerard Butler, Newt Gingrich (See photo below), Juju Chang - 'Good Morning America',
#whcd Newt Gingrich

I was at the party with author and speaker on B2B Marketing Paul Gillin, Giovanni Rodriguez- CEO of SocialxDesign and a contributor to Forbes, Jen McClure - Senior Director, Digital & Social Media of Thomson Reuters and was awesome to meet Lauren Young- wealth editor at Thomson Reuters and host of Money Clip - in person.

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