It was put on by the College Board, the organization behind the AP tests. With so many in attendance, they usually are able to get some pretty high-powered speakers to speak at their plenary sessions.
And if you consider Gwen Ifill, a well-known media talking head who moderates Washington Week a PBS news program, to be a high-powered speaker - and I do - then the College Board came through once again.
Gwen Ifill spoke to the conference at the last plenary session and luncheon.
Now Gwen Ifill has just completed a book called THE BREAKTHROUGH: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. And contrary to the title, the book is not just about Barack Obama, but reviews the cases of four African-American politicians who make it to high executive office. So her speech was about writing the book, a book that was on sale outside the ballroom in the atrium. A book that she was available to sign after the session.
I managed to video most of her speech, but my memory card filled up before the end of the question and answer period. Too bad, that was the best part.
Fortunately I caught the first two questions. Both of them were about what Ifill thought about Barack Obama. So I excerpted this section of the video and uploaded it to You Tube.
Enjoy.
Oh, what was for lunch?
Mystery Chicken, of course.
