The Nuts and Bolts of Covering the 2008 National Conventions

Link to Conventions Information

MS. CHASE: Welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center. We have an excellent team gathered here today to help all of us understand the fun surrounding the Republican and Democratic conventions coming up this year. I know there is quite a lot of interest, and we are looking very much forward to having these folks explain all of it to us.

So let me -- first, I'm going to introduce everybody. We've got Jay Rupert, Olga Kornacki -- they're both with the House Radio-TV Gallery; Jerry Gallegos, with the House Press Gallery; and Joe Kennan, with the Senate Press Gallery. They have altogether worked on more conventions than they'd like for me to count for you, so I think, if anything, they are definitely the experts today. We're going to have them each -- they're going to make a few opening remarks and then take your questions. Please remember to introduce yourselves and your organization. And at this point, I will turn it over to the experts.

Jerry, will you begin?

MR. GALLEGOS: Thanks, Babs. If I can begin by conjuring up what I think is the number one question on your minds, which is: "I've applied for credentials. I haven't heard anything. How do I know that my application has been approved?"

The answer is: If you haven't received an answer from us, if you're a daily publication, if your publication has gone to a convention in the past, you are automatically approved. The only ones that might have to worry a little bit, and it's not much of a worry, is if you've applied in the last week or so it does take a little while to clear, to vet the credential application. And if you are a brand new publication -- and I know we have a number of those, have never gone to conventions in the past -- that takes a little longer. We tend to vet all of those through the Foreign Press Center, but it doesn't take very long, either. I gave Babs another list today, and I'm sure by the end of the day I'll have an answer on those.

We're here to talk about the nuts and bolts of conventions for you, and I think probably the number one bolt -- and there are very few of these, we try to keep this as simple as possible -- is the application. The application is online. You will -- I am sure most of you have seen it by now. It's on our website and the website for the Radio-Television Gallery. In case you don't have it, Babs has a copy of the websites available at the end of this meeting.

And it takes you all of two minutes to apply for credentials. It's very simple. As I said, if you've applied in the past, you will have your -- you know that you're going to be approved. At this point, you should be considering, very seriously considering, housing, especially in Denver, and flights to both cities, Denver and St. Paul.

The nut of this, the thing that holds everything together, is a letter that you will get from us in late July/early August, which will provide you with some further instructions and let you know what your seating assignment is. The instruction will be very simple. The most important thing is to bring that letter -- the original, not a copy -- with you to the convention cities. That is going to be your pass to pick up your credentials. I can't stress this enough: You must have this letter. If you have a correspondent in Washington and New York, L.A. -- I guess you don't have L.A. anymore, right?

MS. CHASE: (Off-mike.)

MR. GALLEGOS: Okay. And you have a correspondent in Europe, whoever applies for that credential will be the one who receives the letter. If you have a European correspondent and they applied, try to apply on your own and put his or her application under your application. Try to combine everything, if you can. It's going to be easier to get that letter stateside than it will be to get it to Europe or Asia.

And then when you show up at the convention, one person can pick up the credential for the rest of the group. If you want to come together, that's fine, too. It will take you about as long to pick up your credential as it does to fill out the application. If you're in our office for more than two minutes, it's only because you're saying hi to people that you haven't seen for four years. We try to make this very quick and very simple. And believe me, it's the easiest part of this whole operation.

The most difficult part will be housing in Denver, and this is an issue that the Foreign Press Center is aware of and you should be aware of it. The parties don't seem to provide the same level of help to foreign press that they do for domestics. It's unfortunate, but that's the truth of it. If there is a cut to be made in housing or in the size of the press stand, it's generally the foreign press that gets cut. We will do the best we can, given right now an unknown quantity of seats on the press stand, to get everyone at least one seat on the press stands. And we've never had that problem in the past. I don't think it's going to be a problem this time, either. There are some dynamics that we're playing around with here that we haven't had in the past, namely bloggers. They're going to be very influential at conventions this time. We don't know how much space they're going to take away from us, and hopefully none. But again, we don't know.

So -- but housing is a huge issue in Denver. And Babs, I think now shortly, will have a list of housing that's outside the Democratic block that, if you are looking for housing, you should start calling. Start with that list first. The Democrats are not going to give you any help. They've already closed off their housing to media. Republicans, you have until May 1^st to get your housing requests in and at that point, the Republicans will look at the total number of credentials that are outstanding and divide the press housing up accordingly.

There are, I'm sure, other questions that you will have. I don't want to monopolize the time. Joe, is there anything you'd like to add?

MR. KEENAN: I was just going to - perhaps, those of you who don't know the most basic of basics - have all of you been there, many of you been there? The convention will last Monday through Thursday. We give out the credentials on the Sunday before, so if you're - it would be good for you to get into town by Saturday. Usually, there's a huge media party on Saturday night. The convention takes place in a basketball arena in one city, a hockey arena in the other. In Minneapolis, there's a huge workspace and it's all inside. In Denver, all the workspace will be in tents outside.

We give out credentials. There's four different departments that give out credentials: radio-television; we do daily newspapers and wire services; there's one for magazines and periodicals; and there's one - all photographers have to go through the photographers gallery. And the specifics of how to apply are all on the web. We're going to give you a copy of all the websites so you can apply to the gallery that is appropriate to you. It has phone numbers and contact information for all those, if you need any help figuring things out.

MR. GALLEGOS: And for that workspace, we tried to put all the foreign press around the Foreign Press Center. We know that it's easier for you to find your way and to find help. The Foreign Press Center does God's work here. They have those briefings that you will have daily, and it'll be very easy for you to get from your workspace to the Foreign Press Center for that and then find your way back. The workspace in Denver, unfortunately, it's cogged* up in a number of tents. The tents had to fit the footprint of the parking lots themselves. In St. Paul, all the housing is indoors of the Foreign Press Center and your workspace is probably a two-minute walk to the press and it's very convenient. It's all indoors, so it won't be a problem for you at all.

At this point, if I may, I'd like to turn it over to Olga Kornacki, Radio-Television Gallery.

MS. KORNACKI: Hi. Jerry and Joe covered pretty much everything I had to say here, so I'll only take a few minutes to talk about the credentialing process and working through our gallery. The deadline for credentials, to apply for credentials, is April 15^th.

We would recommend that you do look at the list that Babs is going to pass out to you all. Our address, radiotv.house.gov, will be listed there. What we will do is we will get your application and Jay Rupert will work in tandem with Babs and with the State Department to vet your organizations. Jay Rupert is going to be the one in my office who will handle international broadcasters. It's because he's charming and he's witty and he's very friendly. So, please, contact him; he will be happy to give you his information after this - phone number and email address.

Anyway, if you are going to come to the convention, you can do it one of two ways. You can come independently, as an independent broadcaster or reporter, or you can come with a large news provider. We would almost recommend that those of you who have television needs, please, to go through a broadcaster provider, either EBU or any of the domestic broadcasters, APTN, Reuters. They're all very good.

And the reason I say that is because we've now passed the deadline for workspace and a lot of these providers have already secured workspace from my office. They have stand-ups, they have skyboxes, they have a lot of square footage. So if you are looking for a table or a place to put your hat down, go to them. And if you can't or you don't want to work with them, the Foreign Press Center is certainly the best place to go. I know they have asked for a lot of square footage from our galleries, and we're going to work with them and they will give you tables and chairs and things that you need, televisions and data lines and whatnot.

There are some press filing centers within the tents that are non-assigned, a first-come, first-serve basis. I have a feeling that you are going to be overwhelmed with the interest of the international broadcasters. I have told everybody backstage that in Boston, we credentialed 4,300 journalists and in New York, we credentialed about 4,500 journalists. We have now broken the 6,000 mark. And if you - if I had to sort of look at the numbers, I would say they weigh heavily towards the international broadcasters. So I know Babs has a great deal of space, but there are other areas and venues, should you find yourself locked out of some of them that you can go to.

The other thing I wanted to tell you about was that the floor passes and the [building] credentials that we will give you will be limited, so - or will be a combination of credentials. For example, if your news organization were to come to my shop and say you needed seven credentials, we would give you a mix. You would get seven perimeter passes. You would get probably four or five building passes, and then the building passes would allow you to come down to our rotating floor pass line and then you would get a time-limited pass to go on the floor. The credentials are per organization and not per person. They are not assigned to anybody in particular so that it is very easy for you, if you are the first one that has the credential out on the floor, you do your time-limited. Generally, the first two nights, it's about 30 minutes to 20 minutes. It depends on how long our line is.

The crucial nights, a Wednesday and a Thursday, we might cut that down to 15 or 20 minutes. We require some sort of photo ID. You would go out on the floor, you would do your 15 minutes, come back to our floor pass line. If nobody is in line, you can go back out again. If you have a colleague waiting for you, you would come to our line, turn it back in. And since these are - credentials are non-assigned, essentially you're - basically take them out of your - or off your neck and handing them to your colleague.

And as Jerry said, we're trying to make this as simple and as easy as possible for you all to cover the event. Bear with us because we do have lots and lots of people who are coming and wanting the same thing. And that's all I really had to say, other than to perhaps press upon you the same concerns about housing and flights in Denver, especially. Thank you.

MS. CHASE: Anybody has questions? I have no doubt we have lots. All right. Do you all want to stand up? We'll start right here on the front row.

QUESTION: Hi. Ron Baygents with Kuwait News Agency. Procedurally, I think I'm going to have to get a confirmation letter before I'm going to be able to get my organization to approve of flights and hotel costs, so do you know when we're going to get that - get, you know, something in our hand?

MR. GALLEGOS: You need something in order to convince your agency that you're going to be covering this convention?

QUESTION: I would say that's fair. I mean -

MR. GALLEGOS: Okay. Why don't you drop us an e-mail.

QUESTION: Yeah, I've already - you know, I did this, I don't know, two months ago. I don't know. I haven't gotten a thing back.

MR. GALLEGOS: If you need something, just - why don't you e-mail and I will respond with an e-mail, saying that you have been confirmed; you're in our database and you're expected to be at the convention.

QUESTION: Okay. And you'll provide us some stuff here today on that? And then following up on the workspace, will we need our own laptops for filing written pieces, I presume?

MR. GALLEGOS: Laptops, I think, are going to be the way to go.

QUESTION: No, I mean, you're not going to have computer set-ups within the tent in Denver, for example?

MR. GALLEGOS: No. If you wanted to rent that, you could rent it through a vendor. You don't want to do that. It's going to cost you a ton of money.

QUESTION: Okay. Got you. Been through this. Okay, thanks.

MS. KORNACKI: Generally, though, the press filing centers and the centers that are available for use, they simply provide you a table, a chair, a television to watch the proceedings on the floor and maybe a data line. The rest of it you must provide, since - in the old days, they provided typewriters and telephone lines. But now since most everybody has a cell phone, you don't need a telephone line. Typewriters are your new laptops. So it's a very basic bare space to work in.

MR. GALLEGOS: And Olga is referring to the general filing center. Now, you've got a Foreign Press Center and they will have ethernet hookups, too. Babs will be able to talk to you about that, if you want to do that now or later. I think that there's still some concern about just how many lines, how many ethernet lines you're going to need. Do you have an air card?

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

MR. GALLEGOS: It's - air cards are kind of expensive. It's something that you'd have to provide yourself. No one is recommending that you go wireless because the number of news organizations there, the fact that you have so many televisions, so many cameras providing data, data takes up a lot of the bandwidth. And everyone's going to want to use it at the same time and you're not going to get anything out. In addition to that, Secret Service has this really nasty habit of jamming signals, just when you need it the most. And you know, unless you decide you want to leave early, go back to your room and hope that you've got a connection there, you're better off with a hard line feed.

QUESTION: And you'll have those lines?

MR. GALLEGOS: Those lines will be available through the Foreign Press Center. They will be available in the filing center. There will probably be a charge for the ethernet. Don't know what the charge is going to be but, you know, it's *rod and drape* charges, it's ethernet, maybe table and chairs. Maybe that'll be provided.

MS. CHASE: And let me - I'll also add real fast. We will send out something closer to time that tells you exactly what will be available in the Foreign Press Center filing center. So just so you'll be prepared with enough advance notice.

QUESTION: Thank you. Hi. I'm Philippe Gelie, Le Figaro of Paris. We all have personal experiences with this credential process. When I filled the form, my boss asked me to get a credential for another guy from Paris who would be coming. I fill the form, I put my name, and at no point was I asked to give the other guy's name. Is that normal? Will he get his credential?

MR. GALLEGOS: That is normal. Right now, all we need are numbers. When you stop to pick up your credential, we'll need the name then. The reason is very simple: Names can change between now and then. You know, things happen; they always do. So as long as you can provide us with a number, if the number changes, that's fine, too. Drop us a note saying, you know, you've decided to increase your numbers, decrease numbers, whatever. We'll just change it in the database and then when we print that out, it'll show up. And then when you arrive, we'll ask you for some information. The name will be one of them. In order to give you a credential, we'll have to know the name of the individuals who are actually picking up the credentials.

QUESTION: That will be put in the letter you will send us later, July? That's what you mean? The number of people?

MR. GALLEGOS: The letters that will come out will -- will the letter state -

MR. KEENAN: We'll send you a letter telling to whoever applied how many credentials you have. And when you come in to pick it up, you'll give us a list of who the people that are using it, and they have to --

QUESTION: Oh, so at the very last minute, you want to know. Okay, okay.

MR. KEENAN: Exactly. When you come in to pick up the credentials with the letter, the letter will entitle you to the credentials. You give us a list of who and their passports numbers are going to use them.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MS. KORNACKI: One important thing that I'd like to add is that a common mistake that people make is that they think they have to go back in and refill out the application process if things change, if their numbers increase or decrease. Simply drop us an e-mail, like Jerry said. That's - we don't need you to go through the whole process again.

QUESTION: Hi. I'm sorry. Who do you mean by us? I only - I mean you, but I don't have your e-mails. The only person I have e-mail of is you, Olga, because --

MR. GALLEGOS: We're going to give you all those.

QUESTION: You're going to give us all those?

MR. GALLEGOS: Babs has a list of all the different e-mail addresses.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. GALLEGOS: On your way out, they'll be issued.

QUESTION: Now, okay. But I just have another question about housing. Also I know you guys said it's going to be a big problem in Denver and the way I applied was a long, long, long time ago through the Democratic Convention. And so we haven't gotten anything back. Will we get something back, saying, okay, you haven't got it and now you have to, you know, go for it on your own? I mean, when should we expect an answer also on that end?

MS. KORNACKI: I talked to the - both parties just before we came here and I'm told that the DNC will put a notice out within two weeks telling people, as Jerry said, that assignments have been made and you have secured this many rooms or they've been unable to secure rooms. At that time, they may provide hotels for you to do your own searching.

QUESTION: Can I follow up on that (inaudible)?

MR. GALLEGOS: Yes.

QUESTION: Would you suggest that we go ahead anyways and try on the outside to get these reservations and then cancel them?

MR. GALLEGOS: I think even the parties are suggesting you go on your own. Again, for some odd reason, neither party wants to understand that this story is a big story outside the United States. It's a huge international story. And conceptually, they just don't get it. So, personally, speculating here, I think this next housing block, when they release this next group of rooms, they will go to the -- those, probably, domestic organizations that got no housing in the first release. There's only been one. And then if there's a further release, which there's supposed to be around July 1^st, that will go to fill out more of the requests for the major bureaus. They don't have enough rooms for the major bureaus.

Have you been to Denver? Have you guys been to Denver? Denver is a lovely city, but it was founded because of a gold rush in a place called Cherry Creek. Cherry Creek runs right through Denver and right past the Pepsi Center. This is kind of like the second gold rush at Cherry Creek -- (laughter) because everybody, everybody there that has a hotel has decided, hey, this is a way I can make a lot of money. So you have Comfort Inns charging $500 a night. We're hearing there are rooms now there that are costing $800 a night. Babs looked up a couple of weeks ago this really nice housing she thought was $100 a night. It was in a condo that overlooked the Pepsi Center. She thought this was really great housing.

MS. CHASE: (Off-mike.)

MR. GALLEGOS: Yeah, so we called. Put me on the line when she did it. Well, this $100 a night loft that slept two actually went for $6,000 plus a $750 broker fee. And you know who got it? A couple of Japanese reporters who were willing to pay it. Go figure. (Laughter.)

MS. CHASE: Remember, please, to introduce yourself and your organization before you ask a question.

MS. KORNACKI: And if I could give you all just two phone numbers for the DNC, you -- or, I'm sorry, for the RNC, you may call 651-467-2008 and ask to talk to the housing folks. And for the Democrats -- I'm sorry, I thought I had their number -- I think it's 720 -- what is it, 720 --

MR. GALLEGOS: DNC. Which one?

MS. KORNACKI: DNC. Just their main number. I know it's 2008.

MR. GALLEGOS: Yeah, DNC-2008.

MR. KORNACKI: Okay, yes, that's it: 720-DNC-2008, and ask for their housing folks. But I would heartily recommend that you go out on your own and you start looking for your own hotel rooms and not rely on the party. And then if you do get rooms, you can always trade the rooms back that you got and take the ones the party has given you.

QUESTION: Adrienne Woltersdorf from the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung. You wrote that you don't credential freelancers, but I added to my slot a second person which is going to assist me there, but he is a freelancer, so how are you going to do with this?

MR. GALLEGOS: That is meant for freelancers who are just sort of doing spec (ph) pieces. If the freelancer has a contract with your news organization, that's okay.

QUESTION: Will I have to show the contract then at the point when I get the letter, or how are you going to --

MR. GALLEGOS: Well, if you're satisfied that they're a freelancer, you might just indicate that they're a freelancer but they do have -- they are -- they do have a contract with you.

QUESTION: Okay, thank you.

MS. KORNACKI: That actually brings up a very good point with the credentials. We do ask for the information when you come to pick up your credentials on that Sunday. We are assuming that you have fully vetted all of the employees that your organization brings to the convention, so that's why we ask for that information so late. And that's why, again, we're assuming that you know who this person is and you have a signed contract. We are taking you at your word and in good faith.

QUESTION: Richard Latendresse from TVA, Canadian TV network. Two questions: We requested a certain number of our credentials, let's say we asked three; is it possible that you can come back to us and say: Well, you got two, too bad for the third one?

And do we - can - like, do we have to really get ready for this? And I'd like to hear you a little more on floor passes. Will it really be possible to go - well, at least a certain number of times on the floor?

MS. KORNACKI: Yes. Yes to the question that you'll be able to go on the floor several times. What we will do with the credentials is we will do a sort of, as I told you before, a modification of the number of people who will actually come into the building and then through our floor pathline and then onto the floor. We will do it within reason. If you are a television group, we won't say, "Oh, we'll send the cameraman and soundman, but not the talent." Chances are we will do a mix of maybe three or four people. You can go on the floor as many times as you wish on a particular night, provided there is no long line. If there's nobody in line, you can go out as many times as you want. If there is people in line, you would get at the end of the line and work your way to the front.

If, however, you would like to, say, stay for a particular speech on a Tuesday night and that's all you care for, then you would forego all your chances of going on the floor earlier in the process of the convention and then you would come to us and say, "Okay, our guy's going to speak at 8 o'clock,we want to go on now," and we would work with you and let you stay out for the entire duration of the speech that you wish to get.

MR. KEENAN: For the writing press, it's similar. We have a rotating floor pass line and there's rarely lines except during the really big speeches, as things get moving into primetime. But generally, you can come and go on the floor fairly often if you need to.

MS. KORNACKI: And to answer that other question, if you ask for three credentials and we tell you that you're going to get two, chances are what we will say is, if you have asked for three credentials, you will get three credentials to go into the perimeter. And again, it's based on your situation. If you're TV, then we'll say, "Okay, all three can go on the floor at the same time." If you're radio, then we might say, "Two will go on the floor and one would be staying back in your workspace at the press filing center doing a story and the other two can go on the floor." And since the passes are non person-specific, then you could trade that pass off.

MR. KEENAN: For writing press, again, if you had, say, four people there and we only gave you two seats in the stands, then we would give you four to get to the workspaces and things, and then you could take turns. They're interchangeable. You could take it off and give it to your partner and then he could go into the stands and inside the arena.

QUESTION: Zoltan Mikes, World Business Press Online. I wanted to ask that - I was - you told that if we applied in the past, that we will be approved automatically. I was at the convention in 2000 in Philadelphia and Los Angeles and I would like just to know, if I didn't apply through Senate but I was just coming there and go to my pass on the side, is it also valid that I will be approved automatically?

MR. KEENAN: Generally speaking, if you have a pass for Capitol Hill, you're a certainty that we'll approve you. There's not even a question.

QUESTION: Okay. Thank you.

MS. KORNACKI: We - the Radio-Television gallery does not credential anybody onsite who shows up. You have to have applied beforehand.

MR. KEENAN: If that was what you meant, yes, you have to apply in advance.

QUESTION: Hi, Conrad Chaffee with Tokyo newspaper. Two questions. The first one: when you said that one person can come to pick up all of the passes, what do they have to bring? Let's say I'm picking up seven passes. What do I have to bring from those other people? Do you need their Foreign Press Center passes or --

MR. KEENAN: No. We would - we would want their passport numbers and names of all the people that are going to use the cards. And then they theoretically have to have an ID with them when they travel around, but it probably won't be asked for. The most important thing that you have to bring the original copy of is the letter that we send you that says you get seven.

QUESTION: The letter and --

MR. KEENAN: The letter and a list - separate list of all the people in your bureau and their passport numbers.

QUESTION: Okay. But not their passes, not their press passes?

MR. KEENAN: No, you don't have to bring that. Olga may have different --

MS. KORNACKI: Well, and one thing that I want to remind you all of is that, generally, we have one contact person per organization that we deal with throughout the year. If that person is purely a logistics person or producer who won't be showing up at the city, it is that person's obligation to send us an email and say, "I, Barbara Jones, will not come to the convention, but I authorize Steve Smith to pick the information and the credentials." And then she would send his information. We would put it in our book, and then when it comes time to pick up credentials, we will only give it to that person.

QUESTION: And then my second question was - you described a series: a perimeter pass, building pass and then the floor pass. Is that for the writing press as well?

MR. KEENAN: Yes. There are several levels. The work - the perimeter pass gets you into all the workspaces, the tents in one city and the huge convention center in the other. Then there are passes that go into the arena itself and sit on the stands. Floor passes are given out on a rotating basis, sometimes for as long as an hour depending - early in the night when things are slow, but floor passes are on a rotating basis. But - so you'll have two kinds. If you have a bureau of ten, we might give you four passes into the hall, ten perimeter passes to get to the workspace, and then you would get floor passes on a rotating basis.

QUESTION: Ahu Ozyurt from CNN Turk and Milliyet. Maybe some of my colleagues here have the same problem with the - I'm working both for television and for a newspaper. Which is the best one to apply for? I'll probably be doing more TV work there than print work, but print passes may be more easier to get. Will it be limited to certain space? I don't know, just - you know, your --

MS. KORNACKI: Well, television's the best gallery to work with. (Laughter.) But in terms of credentials, it would be the print, probably.

MR. KEENAN: Well, actually, it depends on what you're doing. If you're going to have cameras and equipment, you should go to Olga.

MS. KORNACKI: Yes.

MR. KEENAN: If you're just walking around with a notepad, you might be wise to come to us. But anything with equipment, you go to her. And if you're doing photography, everyone should know that photographers have to apply to a separate gallery. All the photo positions are set by another gallery and they - and anybody with a camera should go through them, even if you work for a daily newspaper or even if --

QUESTION: Still photography, right?

MR. KEENAN: Still photography, exactly.

QUESTION: I'm Takehiko with the Kyodo News, Japanese news wire. You talked about what will be available at filing center and the FPC. What about in a working place? What will be available working places? It's - can we get the table and the chairs at the working place?

MR. KEENAN: I believe your organization requested 600 square feet, which is room for six or seven people. And you will have to order the partitioning and the phone lines and the televisions and all those thing. And I assume the person handling it for you will go to the walkthrough - one's in May and one's in June - to order the equipment that you'll need. But we give you the workspace and the workspace is free, but everything in it you have to rent and pay for and so forth. So --

MS. KORNACKI: The walkthrough date, we only know one so far for the spring walkthrough, and that's the Republican walkthrough and that is May 19^th for St. Paul. And that's where you will go on the 19^th, look at your assigned workspace and then sit down and meet with Freeman Company. And as Joe said, figure out how you're going to fit out your space and then you give your deposit. The other is in June. We don't know the date of that yet.

A PARTICIPANT: Late June.

MS. KORNACKI: Late June, yeah.

QUESTION: Thank you. My name is Sonia Schott with Radio Valera, Venezuela. You mentioned only one bolt. It is still application online. What will be the other one and what will you recommend to others who will be the first time who are covering conventions? Thank you.

MS. KORNACKI: I'm sorry. Could you rephrase that?

QUESTION: You mentioned only one bolt. This is the application online. What will be the other problems journalists are going to face covering the conventions and what will you recommend to those who are covering the first time conventions? Thank you.

MS. KORNACKI: SeeJay Rupert. (Laughter.) Jay Rupert is actually one of the Hill - press secretaries once referred to our offices and our staff as social workers. Jay will be your social worker. He will help you through the process. We don't expect you to have problems, but we are here to answer any questions that you have. I can't think of anything right now that might be a problem, other than perhaps housing and air fare out to the - out and back.

MR. GALLEGOS: (Off-mike.)

MS. KORNACKI: But in terms - you can? All right. Then go ahead.

MR. GALLEGOS: I can think of one or two. One is a problem that everyone will experience, so don't feel that you're alone in this. The very first day of the convention, there's no shakedown to conventions. The first day is what it is. When you get to your check-in point, whether it's the out-of-perimeter or going into the convention hall, you're going to have your first episode with the Secret Service. Now, maybe some of you have been on a campaign trail and you've already experienced this. It's worse. They will look at everything and they will give you a hard time about everything. It rains every afternoon in Denver. If you carry an umbrella, they will probably confiscate it. It doesn't matter if it's raining when the convention is over with, you won't have an umbrella to keep you dry. Maybe you can scrounge one from the bin that they have there.

This happened in Boston and it was a problem. Walk in with a bottle of water, it'll be confiscated. You walk in with an apple - if you haven't eaten all day and you come in with an apple -- that's not an apple to them, that's a projectile, so that will be confiscated. That is going to be your first real experience with the conventions. And it's - generally, the first day it's chaos. It all works out by the second day. And you know, you'll find that these guys actually, by the last day, they're all very friendly, they're very nice.

The other problem you're going to experience will be transportation. That's something we didn't talk about. We talked about housing, but most people are going to be traveling to the convention site by car because, again, Denver has a few very nice hotels downtown. Everything else is someplace else -- it's in Boulder, it's in Littleton, it's in Columbine, it's in Aurora, it's by the airport, which is a long way away. Do you have a copy of that housing cluster? Maybe you want to make copies of that, too. Okay. Those black spots, those are the housing cluster. The very center is Denver. And they look closer than they are.

So you know, if you're going with, you know, four or five people in your group, think about renting a van; otherwise, get on the phone now and rent a car because if you wait too late, there won't be any and you'll need it. If you have a chance, chances are you're not going to be in a housing cluster, but you might be able to get a hotel close to a cluster. If you don't have parking, you can drive to one of the clusters, park your car; your pass will get you on the shuttle system and you'll be able to use that. The shuttle should run until midnight. We're trying to get them to run it later. But the convention should be over nine or ten o'clock. So, you know - so, hopefully, you'll have time to get back to your room. Oh, also there's more micro breweries in Denver than probably anyplace else in the U.S. So, you know, try to stumble out of those before midnight, so you can get back to your hotel.

QUESTION: Janet Silver with Australian Broadcasting. Just to pick up on when you were talking about transportation, what about parking near the convention site, because it's normally then either prohibitive or - prohibitively expensive. The shuttles you say go till midnight. What about those of us who are filing at three, four o'clock in the morning?

MR. GALLEGOS: That's three, four o'clock in Australia?

QUESTION: Right, which would be --

MR. GALLEGOS: Right. Three or four in Australia is about nine or ten or so?

QUESTION: No, four o'clock will be midnight.

MR. GALLEGOS: Here?

QUESTION: (Inaudible.) Yes.

QUESTION: Yes.

MR. GALLEGOS: Then I would suggest to you check with your hotel and see if they've got internet. That might be the best place to file.

QUESTION: Yeah. Not for television or radio.

MR. GALLEGOS: Oh, yeah. Well --

MS. KORNACKI: Well, but I'll tell you, though, there are some groups and National Public Radio has decided that what they're going to do is go to the convention, broadcast that gavel to gavel, do their interviews and then go back to their hotel and file. They're doing that for economical reasons because the cost of things at the pavilions and at the River Center and the Roy Wilkins is going to be a lot of money for them. So there are some groups who will go back to their hotels and broadcast.

There will be some parking. I know definitely at the Republican Convention there will be parking that you can purchase. Our office will be handling a very limited number of parking passes. You would be a classic example of someone who would qualify for parking if you're going to be working until all hours.

Jerry's quite correct, the parties -- we are asking the parties to extend the shuttle bus time for those who do have West Coast time to meet as well as international times to meet. So we'll keep every - we'll keep Babs apprised of any changes in the shuttle.

MR. GALLEGOS: And we are told by those in Denver that parking will be free. Those things are always subject to change. Today they're free and there should be plenty of parking, they say. If you were to look at the parking lot there, it's huge. You've got the Pepsi Center at one end of it and three-mile stadium Field or whatever they call it - INVESCO at the other end, and I don't know, maybe five miles distance between the two. Who knows. It's a huge parking lot. You wouldn't want to walk it. And the press parking is a lot closer. It's supposed to be outside the perimeter and across the street.

Unfortunately, in St. Paul, it's not quite the same thing. St. Paul is a tiny little town. And although, it's called Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Paul's here -- downtown St. Paul -- Minneapolis is over here, 20 minutes or so away. And all of the parking around the Xcel Center and the River Center is within a block or two. Unfortunately, we're told that the Secret Service has extended the perimeter to include the parking lots. So parking will be inside and you won't be in the parking lot. I don't know where the parking is out of there. I've only been to, you know, Minneapolis/St. Paul a few times, but I don't remember a lot of parking lots that were away from the area that you want to be. So you know, parking will be limited there. There will be a charge. We're guessing, if it was anything like Philadelphia, it was 125, something like that, which is not prohibitive. But you know, it may mean you're parking and paying $125 and walking several blocks. And if you're carrying a laptop, if you've got workspace and you want to carry a table or something in with you or, you know, a box of drinks -- oh, and here's another thing, Secret Service consider one bottle or one apple to be a projectile, but if you carry a crate of them in, it's food. (Laughter.) So we don't know where that's going to be.

QUESTION: Le Figaro, again. I remember in '04 for the printed press, when you -- even when you did not have a working space in the arena, you still could sit with the public. Do you think we can do that again this time?

MR. GALLEGOS: Yes. There are two types of seating on the press stand. One is countertop, which entails a cost. You want to -- if you're going to bring a laptop in, if you want to have a hookup to a cable TV, a phone line -- nobody uses phone lines anymore, but Ethernet/internet, there's a charge for that. But we also have stadium seating, and a lot of foreign press would prefer the stadium seating. Now, that will still be available.

You can probably -- I'm sure everyone now is used to operating off their lap, and for most of the conventions, if you've been there -- you've been there -- you know the afternoon sessions of the Democratic Conventions, nobody shows up for those. The evening sessions - Monday, a few people will show up; Tuesday, everybody, even the conventioneers, are out partying somewhere; Wednesday, you're there for the, you know, the speech from the vice president, and presidential candidate; and then Thursday, for the, you know, the presidential candidate. So those are the big times and you probably have enough battery strength to get you through those times.

QUESTION: I just wanted to follow-up on -- I'm sorry -- about the still camera, print press carrying a small still camera. What are the logistical hurdles on that?

MR. GALLEGOS: Still cameras? There are no restrictions really on still cameras. There are going to be very few -- hopefully -- restrictions on small --

QUESTION: Digital -- small digital cameras.

MR. GALLEGOS: Video cameras or motion cameras. You know, the still cameras -- the latest now is a camera with about a 32-megabyte memory cards coming out. You can film for about four hours with one of those and it's the size of a small camera. I think Joe's even bought one. And those we will allow on the press stand if you've got a press stand seat. If you wanted to call a delegate off the floor, if you just wanted to sit in your seat and, you know, show -- if you want to go down to the floor and use it, that would be allowed. If you wanted to shoot from somebody else's position or if it's going to be very crowded and you wanted to shoot from an aisle way or something, it probably won't be allowed just because you're impeding the flow of traffic. But we're going to try to be as judicious and as fair and as liberal as we can with that on the press stand.

MS. KORNACKI: What Jerry and I and Joe have worked out is that if you do have a large video camera -- for other groups that may have large video cameras who are generally print, you would go through their gallery for the credentials and the work -- I'm sorry, for the workspace. And then you would come through my gallery for credentials and access to the floor. And that way we can allow you to go on the floor and get the videotape that you're interested in getting without blocking any of their stands.

QUESTION: Daniel from TV Globo Brazil. I think you touched on that, but just to make sure, if I'm working with another broadcaster, okay, on the live position, let's say, so I haven't applied for workspace, will be credential -- you know, is there a differentiation in the credentials that give you access to the workspace area or not? Like once you're in, you can move in freely except for the floor?

MS. KORNACKI: You will -- exactly. There will be perimeter passes. There'll be building passes. There'll be hall passes. In my case, I'll have stand-up and skybox passes. You should be able to wander the concourse, do some interviews, and then when you want to come down onto the floor, come through our floor pass line, trade in your building pass for floor passes, go out for a limited period of time, and come back once your interviews are done or your time has expired. And then you should be good to go.

QUESTION: Right, but I didn't apply for workspace, so I --

MS. KORNACKI: It doesn't matter.

QUESTION: It doesn't matter.

MS. KORNACKI: You don't need workspace in order to go through our floor pass line.

QUESTION: No, but to go to the workspace area, it's just a building pass, right? It doesn't -- there's no skybox credentials that --

MS. KORNACKI: It's called a perimeter pass and you should be able to go into the building, because there'll also -- that's where the general press filing center is, in addition to the foreign press filing center.

QUESTION: Thank you. Conrad Chaffee, Tokyo Chunichi newspaper again. I have a question about the walkthrough that you were talking about, the one in May with the Republicans. I assume the June one is the Democrats. Does this entail going to first Denver and then St. Paul, and actually seeing the real thing? And then, is that necessary in order to get the workspace?

MR. KEENAN: For you guys, we'll assign you the workspace. We've actually already done it. To get this equipment, it would be easiest for you if you saw what you were ordering and were there with all the vendors in one place and one time. I would advise you to do it that way, for simplicity's sake, but you don't have to.

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

MR. KEENAN: Yeah, they're going to put out a rate book shortly to tell you how much things cost and you can see picture of them and stuff. But there you can actually see what the workspace is like and --

QUESTION: And that's happening in the cities, not here in D.C.?

MR. KEENAN: No, no. That happens on the convention sites.

MS. KORNACKI: And it's my understanding that the Democrats and Republicans do things slightly differently. With the Republicans, you actually go to the city, St. Paul; you will look at your workspace, and then you will sit down with their general contractor, Freeman & Company. The Democrats, on the other hand, I believe that they have online communications with their general contractor, GES. So once your general workspace has been assigned, then you can contact GES, tell them that you have assigned workspace, and then work online with them to get your space outfitted.

QUESTION: Hi, Janet again with Australian Broadcasting. Just to follow up on the transportation, if we're working through an agency, should we do - double up -- go through the agency for a parking pass as well as contact you independently? And the second question is, I know - I believe it was 2004, because the security equipment, television equipment, audio equipment had to be there a day or so beforehand for sniffer dogs or whatever. Is - do we have a timetable yet on that?

MS. KORNACKI: I wouldn't double up. A lot of people don't realize that Joe and Gerry and I and the other galleries talk to the parties probably a good 10 times a day. We talk about you all. We talk about everybody. And if you double up, that may mean that I will say, "Okay, well, I'm going to cancel them out," and the person I'm talking to may say, "I'm going to cancel them out," and you'll end up with nothing. I would go with just one group.

For hotels, that's a different matter, because you can always trade back the rooms that you've gotten and trade up to something that's very good.

For the sweeps, generally, the sweeps are the night before, a Saturday night, the night of the big media party and we - but we don't have any timetables yet from either of the parties on that.

QUESTION: Thank you. Jo Biddle from Agence France Press. Just to follow up on the walkthroughs, will we be getting a separate invitation to attend those in May and June? And secondly, am I right in assuming that the actual workspaces won't be open until Sunday because we first have to get the credentials?

MR. GALLEGOS: The workspace will be open before Sunday. You've got to outfit your workspace. You've got to - you know, you've got to show up and bring your laptops and check out the space. You may want to - you know, you will have to be there when they bring power in and when they bring the internet in, that you want to make sure that you've got connectivity. You do have - you do have workspace. AFP's got workspace.

There is another credential that we haven't spoken of because most of you won't be using it, but if you've got workspace, you will. It's called a pre-convention credential, and you use that before security goes on and that credential is for those people who have the workspace who need 24-hour access. As long as you've got that, you're free to come and go as you like. At some point, that credential - and they will tell us - it will become invalid and the limited access or the perimeter pass will kick in. And by that time, you will have that pass and so you'll be able to use that.

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

MR. GALLEGOS: The limited access pass, the pre-convention pass, you'll get that from us as well.

QUESTION: And will that be for the whole team? I think we've got about 16 or 17 people coming.

MR. GALLEGOS: Whatever you need, you come in, you just tell us you need 16 of them.

QUESTION: And I don't have to apply for that online beforehand?

MR. GALLEGOS: No, you don't have to apply for that. When you show up to fill it out, to --

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. GALLEGOS: -- fill out your workspace, you'll come by and see us.

QUESTION: Okay. Thank you. And what about the walkthrough?

MR. GALLEGOS: We'll be out there - we'll be out there. I'm going out the 16^th of August, I think you're going out the 16^th. So we'll be out there well before the convention starts and we'll have an office out there and you'll be aware of --

QUESTION: Okay, good. I think we're arriving on Saturday or something. So what about the walkthroughs? Will we get a separate invitation for the May-June ones? How do we actually hook up to that?

MR. GALLEGOS: I don't know that there's a separate invitation. There will be a notification put out by the parties and - so just keep an eye out for that.

MS. CHASE: We have time for one more quick question.

Right here.

QUESTION: Nate McCray from Al Arabiya TV. Just wanted to ask a follow-up on that sweep question. If we have equipment but we don't have a live position or live workspace or anything like that, are we going to have to have our equipment in there by that Saturday night or can we then just carry it in on our shoulder?

MS. KORNACKI: You can carry it in on your shoulder.

QUESTION: Okay.

MS. KORNACKI: Yeah, it's - that's for people who have trailers and workspace in the convention center cities.

MR. GALLEGOS: We should say one thing about the sweep, if I can just end it with this. There's three days between these two conventions, and if you've got workspace, you're going to have to really hustle to get from Denver to Minneapolis-St. Paul to set up your workspace. Some of these organizations have planned on setting up St. Paul first and then going back if - and setting up their workspace in Denver. I wouldn't suggest that if you're going with rod and drape, if your only means of creating an office is going with a rod with soft drapes to designate your space, because there's nothing really to protect your equipment there. If you've got a small space, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for you to send a technician out early, maybe the week before, to set up that space for you.

And there's also a post-convention credential. It's a breakdown pass. Generally, you've got 24 hours from the time - or it's even less than that, actually - I mean, it's from the time the convention is over, when that gavel drops, you've got till 6:00 a.m. or so the next morning. So if you're going to do it, if you feel you need a rush, schedule your loading dock time if you need that, or just make sure everybody has an assigned task for carrying out the equipment that you need to carry.

MS. CHASE: All right. Thank you all very much. Just for everybody here, we've got two handouts for you outside with the contact information and the map, so thank you all very much.